Judge, 1911-04-15 · page 12 of 24
Judge — April 15, 1911 — page 12: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a satirical piece from *Judge* magazine titled "An Interview with a Drop of Ink." The humor centers on personifying ink as a character being interviewed about its ambitions and past. The satire targets early 20th-century women's suffrage and feminist movements. The ink drop mentions "Laura Lean Jibbey" (likely a fictional or obscure reference to a women's advocate) and jokes about how male ink might help women domesticate men or plan frivolous "pink piffle parties." The piece mocks suffragettes' serious political ambitions by reducing them to absurdist scenarios—suggesting ink's "noble calling" might be trivial journalism or romantic gossip pieces. The top image labeled "Suggestion for Suffragette Coat of Arms" (showing ornate heraldic designs) further ridicules women's suffrage activism by treating it as pompously self-important. The overall tone is dismissive toward women's political organizing, framing feminist aspirations as either grandiose or frivolous.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
SUGGESTION FOR SUFFRAGETTE COAT OF ARMS. AN INTERVIEW WITH A DROP OF INK. 6G OOD-MORNING, Miss—or is G it Mr.?—Inkdrop!"" “A matter of circum- stances wholly. Won't you take a seat on the corner of the brass inkstand? But perhaps you had better come in first. That would be more logical. There, that’s bet- ter! Now, what can I do for you?”’ “If you please, I should like very much to know something about you :Yourpast life, your ambitions, and your hopes of future fame.”’ “Ah, Isee! A sort of ‘Out, damned spot!’ with everything, I think would make good copy, eh? Excuse the swear, that belongs to my past, which I shall quickly dispose of by saying that it was very dark and shady, and, there- fore, the less talked about the better. “As to my am- bitions, I am un- decided. Some- times I feel the desire to under- take a great mis- sion thrill through my particles —a call to help the By HARVEY PEAKE. human race through the agency of some peerless leader of the ‘peepul,’ like Lau- ra Lean Jibbey. With her at the other end of the penholder, I could pose in the limelight of thousands of women’s eyes by telling them how the genus man might be domesticated and taught to eat out of their hands, or how they might give a pink piffle party with a pair of plunks and a plain porch, “Then there are times when I sigh for the widespread fame that the yel- low journals af- ford. And under thestress of this outlook at great- ness, I long for Nat Goodwin to touch the pen with about half his delightfully diver- sified digits and dilate upon ‘Honey moons I Have Met,’ or to be the medium whereby a sym- posium composed of Sarah Bern- hardt, Adelina Patti and Lillian Russell tell the wide-eyed world their views upon ‘The Perpetuating of Youth as a Fine Art.’"" “Then you never feel a nobler —a greater call?”” “Yes. There have been times when I have heard the voice of Art calling me to the drama and immor- tality.” “Ab, I see! comicbooks.com