Judge, 1906-12-29 · page 18 of 19
Judge — December 29, 1906 — page 18: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This six-panel comic satirizes the hypocrisy of New Year's pledges, specifically abstinence from alcohol. "Nervy Nat," an American abroad in Paris, makes a solemn vow to quit drinking. However, each subsequent panel shows his rapid backsliding: He rebuffs a friendly countryman's invitation to drink, claiming moral superiority. Yet when the man calls him "inebriated," Nat's resolve immediately crumbles. By panel four, he's accepting "another" drink while romanticizing alcohol as a patriotic comfort. Panels five and six show complete dissolution—he wakes in a tree, then desperately rationalizes why breaking his oath has made drinking irresistibly appealing. The satire targets the common American practice of making grand New Year's resolutions knowing they'll be abandoned. The joke lies in Nat's self-aware weakness: the very act of swearing off alcohol paradoxically intensifies his craving for it. His flimsy excuses and rationalization demonstrate how people subvert their own pledges.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
“1907! It’s up to your Cousin Nathaniel to make a 2. AmERICAN PeRSON—"'H'lo, ole chap! Glad see flo countryman, Tis not an original idea. but it is done, I am in- Come over ‘n’ have somethin | circles. Although | am but an occasional passenger Nervy Nat- I don't know you, sir! How dare you address me? he alcohol express. | shall cut even those excursions out. From now Even though I had not just sworn off—which, by the way. is none of your on I shall have a mileage ticket on the aqua-pura limited “"—— infernal I wouldn't drink with you or any other total stranger. Pass on, sir—pass on! You're inebriated.”* y Nat—"And what's more, young fellow, le 4. Nenvy Nat—“‘As I said, old man, when you first spoke to me, there's oung life. Of course, as you say, you can only be nothing half so seerly—sissly—sin-cere-ly—well, there's nothing touches t you order anything for me. It would look pretty the heart of a man ina foreign land like the frien'ly voice of a fellow- well-known views on temperance to be seen m'n, It unloosels th’ well-springs of patriolic—idiotic—no, patri- oltic—— Sure! I'll have another “— 5. Nervy Nat—"' Holy breakfast! if this isn't to-morrow a.m.! I knew 6. Sercent Capuc—* You to me put one large trouble, Nervous Nat.” it had to come, yet—and I reckon It’s perfectly natural for me to wake up Nervy Nat—" Have you drawn my barth, Caduc? Say, you know in the branches of a horse-chestnut tree, for | certainly am a bird—I'll bet | never particularly craved intoxicants: but. by Bacchus! because | fool- all Paris thought the reign of terror had come again last night. Wasn't ishly swore off, it became the only, the paramount, the one necessary it disgraceful? Well. birdie, if you'll poach mea couple of eggs I'll be thing in life. Did you ever get taken that way?” most obliged to you.’ Saesesal es or pene Sahin ouelaont Se bean TH te so NERVY NAT’S NEW-YEAR RESOLUTION. comicbooks.com