Judge, 1907-05-04 · page 6 of 16
Judge — May 4, 1907 — page 6: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page satirizes rapid urban development and commercialization in early 20th-century New York City. The main cartoon depicts a New Yorker who's monetized every conceivable space—leasing underground levels to a rathskeller, storage, subway station, and Turkish bath, while renting airspace above his building to air freight and an airship line. The joke mocks the obsessive real-estate speculation and vertical intensification of Manhattan, where landlords extracted profit from every cubic foot. The top illustration showing airships over a city references the futuristic speculation about aerial transportation that was contemporary to Judge's publication. The surrounding snippets ("When He's Boss," "The Bargain-Hunter," "Impervious to Fire," "Cab-Drivers") are unrelated humor items typical of Judge's miscellaneous joke format.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
TOMORROW'S LANDLORD. $4] MADE a good deal this morning,” said the New Yorker. + What was it?” asked his country friend. + Well, I leased the basement of my building for a rathskeller; then T leased the lot for a hundred feet below that for a storage-cellar, and the hundred feet below that I leased to the Underburrow Company for a sub- way station. And there's a man after me now for the hundred feet below that for a Turkish bath—says he'll pay a good rent, too, as he'll get his heat free.” “What with all that and your fifty-story office-building, you: must make a mint of money out of your skimpy little lot,” said the country friend “Oh, that’s not all,” answered the New Yorker, «The hundred feet of air above my roof I leased to the Joy line of Air Freighters, and above that I get ground—I mean air—rent for the station of the London- New York Air-ship Line.” WHEN HE'S BOSS. Pat— Is Casey th’ boss in his own house 2” AMike—« Only whin he’s drinkin’ in Dolin’s saloon.” THAT JOYOUS MOMENT. When a cousin of your best customer presents a letter of introduction and you feel it's up to you to make a good impression. THE BARGAIN-HUNTER. ROM store to store she hastens, And will think the day well spent If on all the things she purchases She saves but half a cent. IMPERVIOUS TO FIRE. GENTLEMAN was visiting in Crackerdom, where the country people were grinding cane and making’syrup. A young lady, eighteen years of age, who had never had on a pair of shoes, was standing in front of the furnace with a long skimmer, taking the skimmings off of the boiling syrup. A coal of fire rolled out on her foot. Her mother said, + Jane, thar’s a coal of fire on yore foot.” Whereupon she deliberately spat out her tobacco-juice and replied A SUGGESTION TO CAB-DRIVERS. in a drawl, ** Which ‘un, ma?” Why not use a little imagination during those leisure hours ? comicbooks.com