Judge, 1907-01-26 · page 16 of 16
Judge — January 26, 1907 — page 16: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This comic strip follows "Nervy Nat," a brash character who encounters a street musician playing violin. Nat initially mocks the musician's sad performance, then offers to "help" by having the musician scrape out the song "Tosti's Good-bye" while Nat sings along to "make much moneys." The musician agrees but then dumps a bucket of water on Nat from above, causing him to threaten revenge with "awful faces." In the final panels, when confronted by a sergeant about the disturbance, Nat blames the musician (claiming he's an impostor), while the musician defends himself similarly. The satire mocks Nat's arrogant interference and his hypocritical attempt to avoid responsibility—he wanted to exploit the musician's talent for profit, got punished for it, then immediately deflected blame. The humor relies on slapstick and Nat's exaggerated outrage at being out-maneuvered.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
1, Nervy Nat—"' Gosh! isn't that a sad sight? It touches me very dynamo. 2, Nervy Nat—" Monsieu’ le Fiddler, pardonnez yours sincerely: but yc The poor fellow is playing real pre-digested music, too. “Tis no mere scrap don't seem to be making a mastodonic hit. 1 have a lazily limpid, four-cy ing the tall of the gee-gee across the—— Well, its no punk performance. Inder voice. Now, suppose you scrape Tosti’s * Good-bye’ on your squawker, By Jove! I'm going to help him out."* and [will render the same. And together we will make much moneys—eh, 3. Nexvy Nat—'' Gcoocoocda—tye for-rr-r-revah! 4. Voice rrom asove—'*Oul, oul! Good-bye forevaire! Nervy Nar—" Oh, lemon meringue! this is slimply oulrageous! You Jlust wait ulp thlere, wholever dud-did that dud-dastardly trick! I'll lul-lay for you, and I'll make the most awful faces at you "—— 5. Nervy Nar—"It was all on your account, you maudlin, musical mendi- . Zere eez of an excuse nossing for you, is it not cant! you squeaking, syncopated scarecrow! You'd better be earning an fan excuse, it is, that | have. Say, | wish you wouldn ! honest living as a sneak-thlef than to be adding to the din of this over-nolsy get me talking like you do. My defense will be solely that the shredded-whesi tropolis—and playing on the feelings of sensitive souls like * yours heat- person on your right is an imposter. No one was ever as pathetic as b+ Jooks."* + 4VOGE CLMPANY FURLIBNERS 229 FOURTH AVE Ste vOm8 NERVY NAT TRIES HIS VOICE. comicbooks.com