Judge, 1911-08-26 · page 16 of 28
Judge — August 26, 1911 — page 16: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains two distinct pieces of satire: **Top cartoon:** A social commentary on women's fashion, specifically corsets. Two women discuss their stays (corsets). Miss Seashore asks about duration; Miss Nuform replies hers are "too long to be comfortable"—a joke about both the physical discomfort of restrictive Victorian corsetry and the absurdity of enduring such garments. **Main article:** "The New Prize Contest" is satire directed at magazine editors. By 1900s standards, editors notoriously held manuscripts indefinitely without payment or response, while magazines offered contributors prize contests. The author proposes reversing this: editors should compete for prizes based on *how well they treat writers*—accepting manuscripts quickly, paying promptly, and avoiding form-rejection letters. The escalating prizes mock editorial stinginess: the "first prize" of fifty subscribers is presented as valuable compensation, revealing how little editors actually offered writers. The "booby prize" threatens editors using form rejections with blacklisting—satirizing their casual dismissal of aspiring authors. The satire exposes the exploitative relationship between early 20th-century magazine publishers and contributors.
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Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Miss Scashore—"" How long is your stay?" S MAGAZINE editors have for a long time been giving priz- es to their contributors for manuscripts, it is about time that the contributors should return the compliment by offering a series of prizes to the editors. Let it be suggested, therefore, that every man who is something of a scribbler have something of a circular printed for the purpose of conveying to the editors something about as follows: Rules—The length of this contest will be one month. Editors must not hold manuscripts longer than one day. Manuscripts must not be returned unread. Payment must be made upon acceptance of manuscripts, not upon publication thereof. The author himself will select the editors who are to take part in this contest. First prize—Fifty new yearly subscribers w ‘ll be hus- tled together, somei ow, for the editor who acce;ts the greatest number of articles. Note—Any editor who has had experience in soliciting “na, Hal NEN —_— OF CORSET IS. THE NEW PRIZE CONTEST. By WILLIAM J. BURTSCHER. subscriptions for magazines in this en- lightened age will appreciate the worth of this prize. Second prize—Twenty-five people will be begged or compelled to subscribe for one year to the magazine of the editor who accepts the manuscript containing the greatest number of words—such as short story, long story, article, essay, preachment, criticism or anything that has length to it. (See note above.) Third prize—One new subscriber will be picked up for every editor who ac- < 2a, LL BAT MY HAT!” (ire IP THAT ISN'T THE FUNNIEST JOKE t EVER READ ‘Miss Nuform—"* Too long to be comfortable."” cepts one poem, parody, jingle, limerick or anything that has rhyme to it. Fourth prize—One advertisement will be answered and mention made of the magazine of every editor who accepts one epigram, aphorism, proverb, wit- ticism, or anything that comes in the form of a long thought whittled down into a short paragraph. Fifth prize—Where an editor does not find any of the material suitable and in returning it to the author writes a per- sonal letter, the author will speak a kind word concerning said editor’s magazine to his friends. Booby prize — All editors who send stereotyped rejec- tion slips while this contest is on will be taken off the au- thor’s list and debarred from all future contests. Made To Be Broken. ITTLE hoarded pennies, Little dollar bills Make the mighty fortunes Spoken of in wills. FISH in the pan is worth two in the creek. comicbooks.com