Judge, 1905-12-16 · page 18 of 48
Judge — December 16, 1905 — page 18: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This six-panel Christmas comic depicts a slapstick mishap. Young Sammy sews together all the household stockings into one enormous "jumbo" stocking for Christmas. When hung, the oversized stocking becomes a chaotic trap containing multiple animals—a cat, dog, and mice—who quarrel violently inside it, creating pandemonium that even Santa Claus cannot manage. The humor operates on physical comedy: the larger-than-life stocking symbolizes childhood greed and excess, turning a cherished Christmas tradition into slapstick chaos. Santa's bewilderment ("that stocking is having a row with itself") emphasizes the absurdity. The joke satirizes both children's outsized holiday expectations and the era's sentimental Christmas imagery by reducing it to anarchic mayhem—a typical Judge magazine approach mixing holiday cheer with irreverent humor.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
SAMMY'S JUMBO STOCKING AND WHAT CAME OF Il Saumy—" Gee, but ain't this a whopper. I've sewed together “bout all the stockings there are in the house, I guess. Now I'll go to bed." 3. ‘Here's where | get that cat. I've been laying for the (From inside the Jumbo stacking)—" Bow-wow-wow-meow-ow-w-w-squeak- eriter for weeks." squeak-ow-meow-spit-zip-fts Santa Craus—"'I've seen many a a Christmas stocking in my time, but Santa Craus—“‘Help! Murder! Sufferin’ tcm-cats and blue blazes here's where I'm stumped. That stocking Is having a row with itself, I What's up. any way?” will investigate." * Great Cesar's ghost! 1 wonder what Santa has brought me?”* comicbooks.com