Judge, 1910-11-19 · page 16 of 24
Judge — November 19, 1910 — page 16: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page satirizes the credulity of people who consult clairvoyants and fortune-tellers. A husband and wife each separately visit a psychic who predicts one of them will die on January 26th. Neither tells the other, so both spend days in anxious tenderness, each believing *they* will die and the other will survive them. When the truth emerges—via a frantic phone call—the irony is complete: the prediction was entirely fabricated, yet it briefly transformed their relationship through mutual concern. The satire targets early 20th-century spiritualism fads and gullibility, showing how superstition creates emotional chaos. The secondary cartoons mock courtship rituals and literary pretension. Judge's social commentary here is straightforward: don't believe charlatans, and appreciate what you have before invented catastrophes.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
\ Mrpemn a, i SIMILIA SIMILIBUS. I 've often said that you are like the rose, Now take it from a different view : The rose is very proud because it knows ‘That it resembles you ! queer kind of away. Hang it all! I'll try it, anyway.” After a hasty glance up and down the street to make sure that he was not storing up ridicule for himself from the observa- tion of a passing acquaintance, he made his entry into the mysterious apartment. Ev- erything happened as it had when his wife came, excepting that he did not experience the creeps on entering. He had them, how- ever, in full force when he went out, for the fateful prophetess assured him that his wife would die on the twenty-sixth of Janu- ary. The same admonition to absolute secrecy was impressively given. He went about the rest of the day in a tormenting state of alternate belief and incredulity. On the way home he bought some flowers for his wife, and after dinner asked her if she wouldn’t like to go to the theater. “Oh, no, dear,"’ she replied. ‘‘It is much nicer to sit here cozily by the fire."’ She had to slip out of the room for a few moments to compose her feelings. “I know now that it’s true,"’ she thought, Auntie—'* You better accept bim, dear. his valor when be asks your father."” PUTTING HIM TO THE TEST. Gladys—"' Yes, be says be would even fight for me."* He will have a chance to show JUDGE as she choked back a sob. ‘I never could get him to go to the theater without beg- ging him to for days. I had to threaten to go to Dakota and get a divorce the last time I got him out. Oh, I know he'll die!"” In the meantime her husband was think- ing: ‘First time since I met her ten years ago that she ever refused an invitation to go to the theater! Poor little girl! She must be feeling awfully! I never believed in clairvoyants before, but I can’t doubt that woman in the face of such a thing as this!"" The time passed quickly, filled with mu- tual attentions and tenderness and increas- ing apprehension, until the fateful day ar- The fiend incarnate! me that you would die to-day—saw a vision of a hearse and me following, with you in- Why, she told an? side, and all that. Let me go and kill her!" “Wait, dear,”’ said his wife, drying her eyes and gasping with relief. ‘You know you are a little hasty, and, besides, it is snowing hard; so you may as well wait until it clears.”” “Well,’’ he growled, “I'll call her up on the telephone, anyway, and ask her what she means by it. Look in the telephone book and find the number—quick! I can’t see straight, I'm so furious!’’ “Here it is,’’ she said, after a hasty search. ‘‘She is in the Chesterfield, on Peck Street. One—two—seven—Peck."”’ rns Saseg. é WHY NOT BUILD rived. They never let each other out of sight for a moment, but kept anxious though furtive watch, until Mrs. Ash's nerve completely gave way and she fell upon her husband's neck in a storm of sobs. “Oh, Jim, I can’t bear it, I can’t bear itt’? she exclaimed. Is it so bad, dar- ling? Let me send for the doctor for you!" he said in consterna- tion, “The doctor for me? Why, I'm perfectly well! But you, Jim, you Oh, I-can’t let you die!"” “Me—die? What are you thinking of?”” “Sh-sh-e said you were going to d-die se to-day !"" “Who did?” “The clairvoyant.” “What — that wom- IN KEEPING WITH THE TASTES OF PEOPLE? 01 [2 ‘An ideal house for the literary family. He seized the telephone and shouted, “Hello! Give me one—two—seven— Peck. Hello! Is this the Chesterfield? Give me Mme. Vidon."’ “You're the ninety-ninth person who has asked for her to-day. She’s gone away,” the voice over the wire replied. “Oh, —!"" “Yes, that’s what they all said.’” “What did the other ninety-eight people want of her?"" “Well, I guess they wanted to consign her to that place you casually mentioned just now. She seems to have told them all that something was going to happen on the twenty-sixth of January, and then, after she got them all worried, she packed up her things and left.” “Well, I'll be’’—— “Good-by!'’ And the receiver was hung up. Sounds Fishy. 6s HY IS a catboat?”’ “T don’t know, unless it’s to give the dugfish something to chase.'" comicbooks.com