Judge, 1905-12-02 · page 7 of 16
Judge — December 2, 1905 — page 7: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains three humorous pieces satirizing American rural and working-class life circa early 1900s: **"Sympathy"** is a brief pun: a woman marries a widower, so she'll wear mourning clothes ("weeds")—hence "sympathy for her weeds." **"Doremus Bjorge and the Sheepskin"** mocks rural naïveté. A mail carrier, pranked with a sheepskin nailed to his wagon, panics when crows gather, fearing they attack his horses. He drives frantically into town; the crows merely wanted the sheepskin. The joke targets rural superstition and gullibility. **"Force of Habit"** satirizes an undertaker's unconscious occupational bias. At his daughter's wedding, overcome by habit, he shouts to the carriage driver: "Immortelle Cemetery!"—treating the honeymoon destination as a funeral errand. The humor relies on dark irony about how professions shape reflexive behavior. All three pieces use simple, vernacular humor typical of Judge's working-class comedy.
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Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
ype SYMPATHY. “| understand that your gardener Is to marry your old coachman's widow.”* “Yes, Sympathy for her weeds, | suppose.”* DOREMUS BJORGE AND THE SHEEPSKIN. Pinhook, December 1st. SOME heartiess wag played a serious practical joke yesterday on Doremus Bjorge, rural free-delivery carrier on route Number 3. When the carrier stopped for dinner at the Wharton place some one nailed a fresh sheepskin on the top of his covered mail-wagon, He noticed a number of crows near by when he went out after dinner to hitch up, but thought nothing of it. The wind was facing him when he started and blowing quite hard, so that he did not perceive any odor after he left the farm; but the crows evidently thought the sheepskin was a regular traveling feast prepared for their delectation, and began to assemble in swarms and follow the rig closer and closer. Bjorge is a rather stingy man, and his horses were quite poor, and when the birds began to crowd closely about the wagon the thought struck him that they might be after the team; so he whipped up and drove like mad all the rest of the way into town, disregarding the mail-boxes along the route and looking only for safety to his team, which he supposed to be threatened by the sable scavengers. The air was fairly black with crows all about him, and he could hear them screaming and scratching on the top of the cover. He was in ter- ror, and scarcely thought he would be able to save Woman—"* Well, here is ten cents. Tram an’ de water-bugs will die uv thirst.”” A RECIPE. Traup—"' Fer ten cents I'll tell yer how ter git rid uv all yer water-bugs.”” How?” "Refuse ter pay yer water-bilis; den de water guys shuts off yer water the team; but just as they were galloping down the long hill into town from the east the crows succeeded in dislodging the sheepskin and flew away with it, When Bjorge reached home he immediately bought a stock of feed for his team, and they had the best supper they have had for months. ~ te Sonu LvK, FORCE OF HABIT. HE HAD made a reasonabie fortune in undertaking, but that not- too-jovial past was quite forgotten (as he thought) on the mem- orable day when his only daughter was wedded to the young man of the fami- ly's choice. Every one was happy, the ceremony had been impressive, the recep- tion a brilliant success, and the breakfast a triumph long to be remembered. New rice and old shoes were be- ginning to be in evidence, and papa stood holding open the door that was to shut two blissful souls off from a prying world, Out from the house tripped the little bride, the groom following, dodging slippers, and then, as the coach-door banged to, old habit surged over papa. In stentorian tones he called up to the driver, + Immor- telle Cemetary." FARM LESSONS AT NOME, 66] THOUGHT you'd forget how a scythe to swing Out in Alaska, Joe.” “Dear dad, ‘tis the place te learn such a thing— You can watch the Eskimo,” comicbooks.com