Judge, 1911-05-20 · page 10 of 24
Judge — May 20, 1911 — page 10: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains multiple satirical pieces typical of early 20th-century American humor: **"R.S.V.P." poem**: Mocks women's rights advocates by sarcastically noting women complain about male oppression while self-imposing restrictive fashion (the "hobble skirt"—a notoriously tight, leg-restricting garment). The satire suggests women are their own constraint. **"A New Word Wanted"**: Ridicules proposals for a gender-neutral pronoun ("thon") to replace "he or she," dismissing the effort as clumsy and suggesting only slang-creator George Ade could make such neologisms stick. **"The Name is But a Shadow"**: A pun joke where a wealthy woman confuses "nom de plumes" (pen names) with actual French feathers for her hat—satirizing nouveaux riches pretension. **"Evolved from a Fig Leaf"**: Shows progressive undressing from fig leaf to business suit, apparently commenting on social evolution. The overall tone reflects anti-feminist sentiment common in Judge magazine, mocking women's rights activism while using fashion and language as targets.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
RSV. P. H, WOMAN, in our hours of ease, Uncertain, coy, and hard to please, Despite thy smiles and ways divine, What inéonsistency is thine! Thou dost complain be- cause the yoke Of man hath held thee in restraint. Thy sisters who have just awoke Fill all the earth with this one plaint. From every platform, every stage, From every kind of printed page, We hear of woman held in ban Beneath this awful yoke of man! Yet, oh, my well-beloved She! 'Mid all thy phrasings bold that hurt, Who is it that hath placed on thee The hobble of that modern skirt? What yoke of man is this that rankles, When thine own self hath chained thine ankles? A. Sufferan Mann. A New Word Wanted. By RALPH BERGENGREN. VERY now and then somebody gets worked up because we lack a con- venient pronoun that includes a lady and gentleman at the same time. He or she, so to speak, gets tired of saying he or she when he or she means him or her without reference to his or her sex. The device is obviously clumsy when you come to think of it, although the fact that the language has worried along for so many centuries has made most of us pretty well used to it. Just now some of these people are sug- gesting the adoption of a new word, “‘thon."’ Anybody, they say, who wishes to simplify thon speech will do thon duty by expressing thon opinion. Nevertheless, we doubt the immediate admission of ‘‘thon."" If the innovators are really determined to find a he-or-she substitute, we advise them to send for Mr. George Ade and engage him to invent one that can jump gayly into common speech as the latest addition to our slang vocabulary. That’s the way to get a new word into the language. Vincent TeorTa—~ “THE NAME IS BUT A SHADOW.” Milliner—"* 1 am sailing for Paris next week for French plumes and trimmings. Could I purchase anything special for you ?"" Mrs. Recent Rich—"" Why, yes; you may bring me half a dozen of those nom de plumes I often hear spoken of."” ON THE MOVE, “ May I take a moving picture of your cheese ?"” EVOLVED FROM A FIG LEAF. Love. OVE comes but once? true, Yet life hath many charms; For as I plod my journey through, I find, despite this fact of rue, There’s lots of false alarms! That may be The Dream of Peace. Knicker—*Wouldn't it be really grand if the leading nations signed arbitration treaties?”’ Bocker—‘‘Yes; but the church choirs wouldn’t.”” wi DO they reserve the best room in every hotel for the newly-weds? Much better rent it to the couple longest married; they'd be more likely to notice the furnishings. comicbooks.com