Judge, 1908-09-05 · page 5 of 16
Judge — September 5, 1908 — page 5: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains a poem by Victor A. Hermann lamenting the disappearance of the traditional milkmaid. The illustrated narrative shows a rural milkmaid being displaced by modern industrial dairy technology—specifically a milking machine operated by a farmer. The satire targets industrialization's effects on pastoral labor and rural life. Where once a "fair" milkmaid performed her work in idyllic countryside settings, her role is now "displaced" by mechanical "bells and battery." The poem expresses nostalgia for pre-industrial agricultural work while mocking the inevitable march of mechanization. The bottom cartoon reinforces this theme: a farmer operates modern milking equipment while geese scatter—visualizing technology's disruption of traditional farm life and the worker's obsolescence.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
THE PASSING OF THE MILKMAID. aid who arose each morn, Alas for the maid with the shining pails H, FAIR was the mi O Like so fairy, Who milked by the moss-grown dairy h the crumpled horn No mors dodge the switching t Or ntrary; 1 ix she That runs by belts and bat Oh, sad ix the cow with the crumpled he was red , For her friend, the milkma ME ls, wi th led, tle herd They milk her And as by She sighs for the days And the touch of the milkmai Me While the Ere tl u rst white stars d i " SS comicbooks.com