Judge, 1908-10-10 · page 6 of 16
Judge — October 10, 1908 — page 6: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page collects satirical "penny dreadful" parodies—mocking the melodramatic serial fiction popular with working-class readers. The sketches exaggerate the genre's absurd plot twists and overwrought emotion. **The cartoons mock:** 1. **Romantic melodrama**: Young men agonizing over women with implausible earnestness ("Can you swim?" as a marriage proposal) 2. **Class anxieties**: A wealthy banker (Monsieur Biggles) offering six million dollars to marry off his daughter to a nobleman, treating her as a commodity—satirizing both aristocratic fortune-hunting and bourgeois desperation to marry "up" 3. **Penny dreadful conventions**: Absurd plot devices (the "haunted barrel," wires crossing telephone wires), coincidental complications, and breathless narration **The point**: Judge ridicules both the lowbrow fiction itself and the social pretensions it reflected—pretentious suitors, mercenary marriages, and contrived dramatic complications. This is sophisticated satire aimed at readers educated enough to recognize the clichés.
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Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
EXTRACTS FROM PEN- NY THRILLERS. T WAS strange, Rupert I thought, as she smiled upat him was so happy, xo fullof . should give him a smile that, while not rue- ful exactly, was undoubt- edly blue. It puzzled him, and he looked anxiously c, teyi rame in words the ques- one who sunshin into her fa n that surged up in his rt-—and then with equal of reli eating hu 1. Prirky Fred Come on, boys! Let's smoke up the town,” ‘The yacht was beyond ‘The ash in her trim side was [QQ So KS . ard Dorrington felt that the ust ask at last when ‘True, she was his friend's at of that u these? The in our lives when the immed: ir such cir eumsts re moments prompt: fags of the heart will brook no suppres- 1 this was one of them, Kher 1 must!" he mut- tion, Emus along the deck, which was ash, he paused before her, al the Idingg all to. the impulse of the hour, he spoke. We are ge down,” he said. pxwered wit trangge alm was it that of despair? © Then Eshall speak [shall ask the question whi ny lips ever since T first saw you,’’ he THE HAUNTED BARREL went on passionately. Ask it, hy hed her cheek ho has been surging te she said. "1 give you permission.” answered, over until his hot breath tell me can you swim?" Di Buttzki entered his office, * Lam ye ou want to marry my daughter, and, aid Marie's to speak plainly with you, Count, 8 Dunder ne yout six millions of my dollars to support her in to whieh she is Monsieur [ig “Well, Pim fond of monkey from t hat been my ar t, and the idew of her marrying: a little It TL honor you for it you. Suppose [ ygive you six millions now and keep | the girl would that prove perfeetly satis tory to you?” sid Bigg gles. 4 “DT should be dee said the ing with thouy gles, rising and remoy- his coat. * Here are the first (we on ac “Ahold. m’sieu. cried the count, as. the banker prepared to hand 3. Frisky Fred Let's swear atf, boys! What de yeu say 2 She Meera th sint, but he won't shia Oi itt hin! ural color of his wort! “and Ta Here the "ph she could ne “Ouch! m it at Am 1 killed or only third on his send my valet for th And turning on his heel, the man left the office and inquired the est way to rest 6 buzzed ke out wha where the n ar plexus; 1 will ht be restored. She flushed with pleasure as his the "ph mur feet ing, but an instant the wi to clear itself, The voic ' Iso have some very liver this morning that 1 can highly recom mend" Rut the answer never came, Alicia did not re FINED HIME ize thy and that Alyernon Ho by the butcher on less dintist wh comicbooks.com