Judge, 1909-09-18 · page 8 of 16
Judge — September 18, 1909 — page 8: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a humorous underwater fantasy strip featuring "Nervy Nat," a recurring character who encounters mermaids and sea creatures. The satire targets women's suffrage activism (referenced as "scaffragettes"—a pun on "suffragettes"). In panel 4, mermaids recruit Nat to their cause, swearing him to "uphold mermaids' rights." Nat's response mocks suffragettes by suggesting women lack standing to demand equality ("You wouldn't have a chance on earth...you'd much better go home to your little mud-flats"). The humor relies on absurdist sea-creature puns (sardines, crawfish, cod) and the irony of women's rights activism presented through fictional mermaids. The strip uses fantastical situations to ridicule real-world feminist organizing, a common Judge magazine approach. Reference to "Anthony Comstock" (a famous censor) adds another layer of social commentary.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
1. Nervy Nat—"Shades of Anthony Comstock! What have we here? Can that 2. Nervy Nat—"You speak fishperanto bea! be a regular girl? No, no. Perish the thought! It's a mergirl, and a deep-sea pippin at land was never like this. So you know the Cod that! Me for that rocklet." Of course they won't believe this at the club.” my! Yes, I know young Crawfish. He's a lobs you're a seaffragette. How interesting!” Mergirl!—" Come on down. We're justgosg to hi 4. Merpresident of Scaffragettes—"Ah, a convert to the cause. Do you solemnly swear 5. Nervy Nat—"Gee! they're just 8 00¥ © to uphold mermaids’ rights ?” G'way, now, your attentions have ceases ' m Nervy Nat—"No, but I'll solemnly swear a lavender streak if you don't let me out before they unchain their watch-dog fist of this. Why, you lady sardines haven't a leg to stand on. You wouldn't have a chance on earth. No, take it from me, girls, you'd much better go home to your little mud-flats and make up your ocean beds and” NERVY NAT AND HIS EXPERIENCE WITH THE MERMAIDS WI