Judge — March 14, 1908 — page 16: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This is a six-panel children's comic strip depicting Little Johnny and anthropomorphic teddy bears celebrating St. Patrick's Day. The narrative follows a chaotic parade or street celebration where the bears encounter what appears to be an orange (a symbol of Protestant/Irish Unionist identity) and react with alarm—"Today it is not right / For such a bug to be in sight!" The bears then pursue and destroy the orange with various weapons and explosives, ultimately capturing and punishing its owner with "peel and rust." The strip appears to be **satirizing Irish-American Catholic identity and sectarian tensions** of the early 20th century, specifically the Protestant-Catholic divide in Ireland. The orange represents Protestant/Orange Order symbols. The joke for Judge's audience would have been the exaggerated ethnic stereotyping of Irish immigrants' St. Patrick's Day celebrations and their anti-Protestant sentiment. The advertisement at bottom indicates this was part of a serialized book series being marketed to readers.