Judge — February 5, 1910 — page 3: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# "Waste Basket" - An Inventive Genius This satirical piece mocks a struggling inventor named Sim Watson. The text describes his failed attempts at innovation—his first invention (a brush for shoe-tops) never sold, and subsequent failures included a chain-breaking device and an eye-patching contraption. The large central cartoon depicts a complex contraption labeled "Success," illustrated as an elaborate, chaotic machine filled with rejected and failed attempts—visualizing how innovation often requires enduring repeated failures before achieving results. The accompanying short pieces ("It Has Happened," "What Worries Jack," "Righteousness," "Information Wanted") appear to be separate satirical vignettes mocking various social situations and human foibles common to the era. The overall page satirizes both failed entrepreneurship and the absurdity of human ambition.