Judge, 1908-08-22 · page 14 of 16
Judge — August 22, 1908 — page 14: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page from Judge (circa 1908) contains nostalgic humor and insurance company satire. **"The Snake Curve Ball"** is a lengthy poem celebrating a childhood baseball pitch—the curveball, represented as "~~~"—thrown by talented neighborhood boys. It romanticizes small-town American boyhood, where mastering this deceptive pitch made a young player a local hero. The accompanying illustrations show a dejected batter and a "rejected" love letter, suggesting the curveball's power to humble rivals and illustrate life's disappointments. **"Promptness"** satirizes the Foozelem Insurance Company through exaggerated testimonials. The humor lies in claims being settled *so quickly* that agents arrive before the policyholder even dies—one arrives as the man drowns, another finds a check in the deceased's pocket after a mining explosion. This absurdist satire mocks insurance companies' advertising claims of speedy service by taking them to literal, darkly comic extremes. Lower content includes minor rural dialect humor about cows and melons.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
THE SNAKE (~~~) CURVE BALL. THE golden days of summer, When with Skinny, Red, and On the pasture-lot of Homeville You indulged in two-old-cat You remember the presence Of that wizard 'mongst you all, Who possessed the mi it Of the snake (7) curve ball! ric See 'Tis the tery of all things Given boyhood, nothin That enables him to sock ‘em Wriggling like the letter S While the eager batter flushes, *Wildered by the mocking fooled you! A hat's a snake (— is * those fearsome, long contortions ! Hear the quick, triumphant shout, Which apprises all neweomers, “Lean throw an in ut! ns of thousands, why your homey Clarkson or Waddell ‘are small His WEDDED WIFE. Vhen compared to freckled urchin will marry — 1 am And his art mastered him. With his snake (~~) curve ball! wedded to my att, Artis my wife,” he told his friends mu, no doubt, were that brave piteher— PROMPTNESS. ( HE Foozelem Insurance Company is noted for its promptness in settling claims, ‘The last pulse-beat of an insurant is hardly yunded when the first heef-beat heard on the threshold. be longs to our aygent coming, to pay the claim, But there's n ‘This is on the dead level. Of the s Div we for yourself We below a few testimonials, a We have millions more just like them. Come to the office and FDU, HUFF, count them, SAN ven Hon Aue HEAR July Ist, 1 Gentlemen My hus red in your com Haast week hed When they pulled water a Foozelem check. fe W was found in his back @ pocket in setilement of the ¢ 1 uly 1th, 1008, Gentlemen My better half was blown up in a mine, His beautiful architectur seattered over five or six counties. His fect blew it tenth s a skyseraper and kicked out the office-boy of his hands was found twelve miles away tightly elutehinge elem check for $1,000, in settlement of a policy for that amount which he hail in your company, tis lieved! that the check was giv it nig blown past the F s window of its downt June 28d, 1908, Gentlemen My hubl elem policy, was con- tinually worrying about his yeray hi o he dyed. Your death- claims department immediately sent me a check for the amount of his policy. My husband wishes me to thank you, Peres THE MYSTERY OF A COW'S “TALL | cae dite obs Ge << Naoiv, hati IVE iv a sea skirted by long piers, out upon which young couples durned caow crawled through thet thar knot-hole ? stroll to sit down and fall in, SHE GOT IT. 3B Fok one fa _minute is eyes were riveted on the full moon; then the cobwebs beneath his jaunty eap stirred and a new R phr ’ mured, "what would you have than a bushel of lov Her eyes wandered Milky Way; then, paus dreamily at th 4 NO DANGER ve fac’ dey is paris yreen on dat melon.” een; we eat de ted. “ Ah know fo" pos Coprment, ee, or re “We don’t eat de comicbooks.com