Judge, 1907-03-02 · page 16 of 16
Judge — March 2, 1907 — page 16: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This six-panel comic satirizes the early 20th-century craze for "elixirs of youth" and anti-aging tonics—fraudulent patent medicines heavily marketed to the gullible. The protagonist, Nervy Nat, encounters a street vendor (likely a charlatan professor) hawking a youth potion. After purchasing and consuming it, Nat experiences a psychological cascade: merely *thinking* about his age makes him feel ancient; the elixir's placebo effect then makes him feel progressively younger. He becomes increasingly reckless and childish with each swig, ultimately shrinking (or believing he's shrinking) to infancy. The satire targets both the false promises of quack medicines and human vanity—our willingness to believe in magical rejuvenation despite reason. The exaggerated reactions underscore how suggestion and desire override logic. The final panel's reference to eating graham muffins (a "healthful" food) continues the joke about pursuing fountains of youth through marketed products.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
1, Nerve Nat—"' Well, upon my sciatic nerve! the Elixir of Youth! Such 2. Nervy Nar—"Yes: I'll take an imperial pint of that, professor. is human nature. If | hadn't noticed that legend it wouldn't have occurred to course it may do all you claim for it, and then again it may be a large canary- me to think of my age. But now that I do, by Jove! | feel 108 years old this hued lemon you are handing me. 1 don't care to get too gol-darned yourc. minute. My rheumatism asserts itself. | will investigate "—— you knew. If lean sort of glide back to five-and-.wenty and then put on the clamps "*—- ~ 4. Nervy Nat—"‘ Holy cosmos! this puerility cocktail is working Vive la jeunesse! Betcher I'm not more than twenty-seven. All those opportunities Tet slip by I'll corral on the back-draught. The sun seems a bigger and brighter article; the sky is eighty tints bluer. I'll take one more swig and get back to twenty-five "— 3. Nervy Nat—"' Here's how, Dr. Osler! It's really awf ly clever of me to take this disease called mortalitis in hand instead of waiting till the last stages. Wonder if I'll get a lot of birthday presents as | back down the line? I'm go- Ing to ring off before Auntie Charlotte hands me a Teddy bear "— 5S. Nervy Nat—"Help, Caduc! Now I've gone and done it! Mother, 6. Nervy Nat—"' Grerereat cyanide of potasium! Nat, old man, ‘tis glac there's a huge something or other breathing a hot blast down my neck, and am to see you looking so thirty-eight or thereabouts. Do you know, | thoug’'t I'm afraid to look. Oh, gee! I didn’t want to be as young as all this. Ina 1 was going to wake up inside of a commodious Saint Bernard, I'm going (? minute I won't be any bigger than a dog-biscult, and then—— Help!" quit eating graham muffins.”* corrmant wer oy sous company Pomuanana ms rounTn Ae REWER WE RVY NAT AND THE ELIXIR OF YOUTH. ‘ r andson comicbooks.com