Judge, 1909-07-24 · page 8 of 16
Judge — July 24, 1909 — page 8: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a comic strip titled "Nervy Nat Turns" from *Judge* magazine featuring a mischievous character named Nervy Nat causing chaos. The four-panel narrative shows: **Panel 1-2:** Nervy Nat antagonizes a hippopotamus at what appears to be a zoo or menagerie, taunting it and creating a dangerous situation that requires intervention. **Panel 3:** The escalation continues with multiple people attempting to control the agitated hippo. **Panel 4-5:** Nervy Nat presents a fictional hybrid animal (a "lipotamus"—half lion, half hippopotamus) to "Colonel Rosenfelt" (likely Theodore Roosevelt, given the frontier/hunting context), claiming credit for its creation. Rosenfelt calls him a fraud and charlatan. **The satire:** The joke targets Nervy Nat's compulsive troublemaking and dishonesty. He creates problems, then invents elaborate lies to escape blame. The Colonel Rosenfelt reference suggests this early 20th-century humor played on contemporary public figures' eccentricities and the era's fascination with exotic animals and frontier adventures.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
1. Hippo «lave sexu grown-up billy goats—but oh, you kid!” 2. Hippo—" Well, you like kidney stew-vy sho Kit Nervy Nat—"Now, just for that you sik keer N Jat--""Come away from that subway entrance, you knock-kneed, raw glove of thing isn’t done, not even amongst the loreanim material, Well, I see [Il have to go down there and stop that merger! you? Now come ashore at once and don’t forte Kid—" Mla!” H 4. Nervy Nat—" Howdy, Colonel Rosenfelt—don't be alarmed! I take great pleasure in 5. Colonel Rosenfelt—“ This is a fraud, = %4 yo presenting this new animal to you, sir, It is the lipotamus—half lion and half hippopotamus— zen, an Ananias, and OTHER THINGS, by Gee! | it lives on deviled ham and raspberry sherbet. If you make a pet of it, name it after yours scoundrel to the frontier !"* genially, and I shall feel amply repaid. Dee-lighted—I said it first !"" Nervy Nat—"Do you know, I deat k A I'll take up botany next.” | NERVY NAT. TURNS corrmiont, Feonmicbooks-com