Judge, 1911-10-14 · page 12 of 23
Judge — October 14, 1911 — page 12: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This humorous story illustrates small-town life and early automotive/railway culture. Agent Ren Purdy takes millinery shop owner Amy Pringle on a hand-pumped railway car when a bull, attracted to her red shirt, chases them. Ren devises a clever solution: he gives Amy his coat (revealing his red flannel shirt underneath), which briefly confuses the bull. He then uses his railroad switch key to divert the charging animal onto a siding, saving them both. The humor derives from rural incongruity (a bull attacking over clothing color), Ren's quick thinking, and the understated Kansas dialect. The accompanying sidebar mocks small-town Kansas pretensions about automobile wealth, suggesting that stories of even tiny villages owning enough cars for "every citizen" exist only in newspaper boasts rather than reality—a gentle satire of regional exaggeration and automotive-age optimism.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
FROM BED TO BED. Jatt J IOMt SAVED AT THE SWITCH. ls a HURSDAY evening last Station Agent Ren Purdy took Miss Amy Pringle, proprietor of our millinery em pori- um, out riding on his handear. There was only one slight accident to mar the pleasure of the occasion. Hod Renfrew’s male bovine caught sight of Amy’s red shirt waist and chased her and Ren half way to Hickeyville. It was upgrade most of the way and Ren had to pump like all git out. He was puffing and panting and about ready to give up when he got an idea and _ hollered, “Put yourjack- eton, Amy!"’ “Hain’t got no jacket with me," says Amy. “Go home and git it,’ says Ren. That was a happy idee, but Amy dassent jump off and cut cross lots, because the critterwas only By ROY K. MOULTON. about two rods behind and gaining every minute. Ren yanked his own coat off and gave it to Amy to put on. Ren forgot that he only had his red flannel shirt on under his coat. When Amy covered up her red shirt waist, the bull stopped for a minute; but he caught sight of Ren’s flannel shirt and come on again full tilt. The last hope was about gone when Ren spied the brickyard sid- ing. He got off, turned the switch, and run the handear on the siding. Then he throwed the switch back, and the infuriated animal went by on the main track licketty larrup. It were a close call and Miss Pringle’s rat turned gray from fright. The bull didn’t slow down and get the air brakes on till he was passing through West Hickeyville. Ren says if he hadn’t hap- pened to have his switch key along with him, it would have been all off with him. Amy says she prefers to do her joy riding in an airship in the future. “A Seat for Every Citizen.” A NEWSPAPER paragraph asserts that Roxbury, Kan., with a popula- tion of but one hundred, is distinguished because it owns enough motor cars to take the entire popu- “BND OF THE LINE—ALL OFP !” lation on a ride at the same time. Judging from reports that have been coming from Kansas in re- cent years, every town in the State will soon be in the samecondition. Possibly, how- ever, Kansas affluence may be like brother. ly love in Phila- delphia—some- thing found only in news- paper columns. comicbooks.com