Judge, 1911-04-08 · page 3 of 24
Judge — April 8, 1911 — page 3: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page satirizes early 20th-century fashion and social customs through three separate pieces. **"April Foolishness"** mocks the tradition of April pranks with philosophical commentary on foolishness itself. **"A Comforting Thought"** presents a brief humorous poem about wealth disparity—a poor person finds comfort knowing the wealthy have anxieties too. **"The Harem Skirt"** is the main satire. The illustration shows a woman in a divided skirt with a man, captioned as commentary on "present-day fashions." The text criticizes the harem skirt (a controversial fashion allowing visible leg division) as unwomanly and impractical. The author suggests Western women lack "suffrage" to wear it confidently—likely a satirical reference to women's suffrage debates of the era, equating fashion controversy with political rights.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
April Foolishness. By CHARLES C. JONES. THE QUALITY of April foolishness is not strained; it droppeth like any other shower upon the heads of the unsuspecting. Polite gentlemen and chauffeurs, politicians and truth-tellers, small boys and civilized people all dwell in the half darkness of foolishness. April fools are not easily distin- guished, because of the abundance of March fools, June fools, and February fools; also, all-the- year-round fools. The wise fool is less wise than the foolish fool because of his wis- dom, and the foolish fool is less foolish than the wise fool be- cause of his foolish- ness, > Don’t try to tell a fool of his folly—re- member the story of the blind leading the blind; also, that which must happen when Greek meets Greek — and who would want to be a blind Greek? There is a fool's paradise, and it is well for us that there is; for a paradise without fools would be—a fool's paradise. All are born foolish, some achieve espe- cial foolishness, and some people never learn. Life is a foolish effort to fool Fate; an All-fool's journey to a foolish finish— and wisdom is the brick under the hat. A Comforting Thought. LOVE to sit down by the sea And think that it belongs to me As much as to A. Carnegie; And when I look up in the air, No Rockefeller has a share That's bigger than my own up there! HERE would be fewer accidents if there were more of the ‘‘Stop, look, and listen’? signs heeded on the road of life. SKIRTS. An illustrated comment on present-day fashions. The Harem Skirt. By WILLIAM J. LAMPTON. GENTLE reader, have you seen the harem skirt? No? Then you have something yet to see. It is purely Ori- ental and impurely Parisian and has not been Yankeeized to suit all tastes. «The men like it much better than the women do—at least to look at; but it may be doubted if a man would have the femi- nine bravery to wear one in public. If he had nerve enough to wear one in pri- vate, he would change its name to pajarem or something like that. The harem skirt is not united; it is di- vided, but it will not fall. Itis embarrass- ing enough to its wearer when it stands, but if it fell there is no telling what sort of a dis- turbance wouldensue. But the ladies will see that it does not fall. Like the cost of living, it will stay up. Not a great number of harem skirts have been tried on this country thus far, and the re- port that all the Western ladies who have the right of suf- frage will wear it lacks confirmation. In the meantime the harem skirt is splitting the en- tire community wide open with curiosity and criti- cism, and it simply has got to get to- gether or it will lose out. comicbooks.com