Judge, 1907-10-12 · page 16 of 16
Judge — October 12, 1907 — page 16: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a whimsical children's story comic, not political satire. It celebrates the "Teddy Bear" craze of the early 1900s—toys named after President Theodore Roosevelt—by depicting them as adventurous characters. The narrative follows Little Johnny and his teddy bears using his father's gyroscope (a spinning scientific instrument) to power a vehicle that races an automobile across land and water. The humor derives from the gyroscope's unexpected ability to defy gravity, launching them upward into collisions with telegraph wires and kites, terrifying Farmer Brown. The satire, if any exists, is gentle—mocking the era's fascination with new technology (automobiles, gyroscopes) and the commercial phenomenon of teddy bears. The bears winning the race against modern machinery suggests playful superiority of traditional childhood wonder over industrial progress. The final panel's joke about Johnny's "head swelled to double size" with pride is simple visual wordplay.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Suagfe- LITTLE JOHNNY AND THE TEDDY BEARS. THEY HAVE A WONDERPUL EXPERIENCE WITH PA'S GYROSCOPE, RACE WITH AN AUTOMOBILE, AND WIN. 2. And first the Teds start out to beat An auto In a ten-mile heat. John finds the going on land slow, ‘And scoots off on the river, so. 1, Most boys and girls have read, we hope, And learned about the gyroscope John’s pa, you see, has made ore, too. You'll see what wonders it can do. 4. And now they strike a telegraph wire, And John and Teds are going higher. If they should hit the string of a kite It’s likely they'd run clear out of sight. 3. Next on a fence we see the ** gy Just spinning on as nice as pie. A gyroscope you know, will run On anything it can stand on. 5. Old Farmer Srown Js filled with fright, 6. And now the wondrous race is done, And yells in terror at the sight And you can plainly see who won. Of such a funny load of bear The Teds are proud, and that first prize A-whizzing right straight through the air. Has swelled John's head to double size. COPYRIGHT 1907 BY JUDGR COMPANY, PUBLISHERS, 275 FOURTH. AVE. NEW YORK, comicbooks.com