Judge, 1909-10-02 · page 10 of 16
Judge — October 2, 1909 — page 10: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains two satirical pieces: **"A Just Man"** (top text + first cartoon series): A humorous anecdote mocking rural New England practicality. A French customer complains to a village storekeeper that butter contains hair. The storekeeper's "solution"—giving him hairpins to pin the hair back as he eats—is absurd but presented as wise judgment, satirizing narrow-minded resourcefulness and the inability to acknowledge failure. **"Thought He'd Break the Shackles"** (six-panel comic strip): Satirizes early 20th-century consumerism and false feminist messaging. A man buys his wife a vacuum cleaner, believing it will "liberate" her from housecleaning drudgery. Instead, the vacuum becomes chaotic and dangerous, comically backfiring. The title mocks how commercial marketing co-opts feminist language ("breaking shackles") while actually trapping women in new forms of domestic labor and mechanical disasters. Both pieces use humor to critique masculine smugness and commercial gimmickry.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
uape A JUST MAN. OM time immemorial the justice of Solomon has been the standard to which we all have looked, and none would dare even to suggest that in later times any one has lived who measurably approached that wise man’s judgments for exact fairness, There is, however, in one of our New England States, a man whose sense of the proprieties seems to us to be on a par with that of the great King. We shall not give his name, but the proof of our claim on his behalf will be found set forth herewith. The individual in question keeps a village store in which pretty nearly everything that anybody could possibly want is to be found, from butter and eggs to tenpenny nails, gasoline and calico. To one of his customers, upon a recent occasion, this original depart- ment-store man sent a package of butter along with other supplies for his camp in the hi ‘A few days later the purchaser, a French- man, entered the store, with anger in his eyes and words trembling for utterance upon his lips. “* Ees Bill in?’” he demanded of the boy behind the counter, “*Ya-as,"’ said the boy. ‘* Wanter see him?" “ Indeed I do!’ retorted the Frenchman. ‘‘ Right away quick!”’ Bill was summoned, and shortly stoud smiling before his patron. “* What can I do for ye this mornin’, Frenchy?” he inquired. “T haff come, sir, to show you zees last bit of buttaire—eet is awful. I haff nevaire seen its like, no, not anywhere, all ovaire zees world!’ said the Frenchman, trembling with wrath. “‘ What's the matter with it?’’ asked Bill. ‘* Ain’t it strong enough?”” “It iss not that,’’ retorted the Frenchman; ‘* but it iss full of hair—one hair, two hair, three, four, five, six hair!’’ “* Wa-al! I wanter know!”’ ejaculated Bill. “Oui, Monsieur Bill, it iss full of hairs, and I vish to know what you do about it.’” ““Why,’’ said Bill, scratching his head for a moment, “I'll make it right, of course. Here," he added, the solution presenting itself to his quick and judicial mind at once, ‘here. E bunch of hair-pins. You can pin it back as you go along."* HE MOMENT one drops a quarter in the flagging gas meter everything brightens up. THOUGHT HE’D BREAK THE SHACKLES. greAX THE SHACKLES ‘OF WOMANS SERFOOM. BUY YOUR WIFEA : VACUUM CLEANER ANDAVOID THE HORRORS OF THEHOUSECLEANING on ON, TA CEMONSTRATIONS; ATUIMCRA stone. EE 3. There ’s.a chance for you to make a quarter, boys ; are you on the job?” WIL: aN Day ~ 765 G6 Send it or take it with you?” “I take it with me. Are you hurt, cap?” “*Lecan’t tell yet; the vacuum seems to have gotten into me head.”” comichooks.com)