Judge, 1911-12-16 · page 12 of 24
Judge — December 16, 1911 — page 12: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This Judge magazine page contains several satirical pieces mocking American social pretension and changing customs around 1900-1910. **"Enter Mr. Bigtip"** (top cartoon) shows men struggling with a chair—likely satirizing overly formal etiquette among the wealthy. **"Punkin Pie"** is the main feature. William J. Lampton satirizes how educated society abandoned the word "punkin" for the "refined" pronunciation "pumpkin," treating the traditional dessert as beneath cultured taste. His point: regardless of pronunciation snobbery, a punkin pie remains fundamentally unchanged—the substance outlasts social pretension. This mocks how newly educated Americans (via colleges and correspondence schools) adopted artificial high-brow manners while abandoning authentic traditions. **"A Dog-Gone Shame"** ridicules a wealthy man forced to carry an "homely beast"—criticizing vanity. The **"In Ohio"** jokes mock rural/urban differences: farmers won't inherit money like their fathers did, and people redefine terms ("big business," "little girl") based on current success or personal desire rather than actual meaning. Overall, the page satirizes American social climbing and the erosion of genuine values through affectation.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
It's a Bird. Turtle and truffle, tradition has stated, * Undoybtedly taste ultra-rare and unique; Reed-birds, recherche are rated; Kickshaws kindle kings’ appetites weak. Every one to some edible’s mated, Yet—see tha initials—ye yearly shall seek! by roues, James Adams, “= Sana A DOG-GONE SHAME “It's awfully annoying to be forced to carry such an ‘omely beast!’ In Ohio. Visitor-—''I suppose you fellows will vote as your fathers did."’ Native (sadly)—‘Nope; we won't get a single cent for ours.”” Knicker—" ‘Big business’ is any busi- ness that is successful.” Bocker—“And a ‘little girl’ is any girl you are in love with at the time.”” ~ ° a? y “ ~ ‘ GOMES Ore ENTER MR. BIGTIP. Punkin Pie. By WILLIAM J. LAMPTON, HIS is the punkin-pie season—pun- kin pie, mind you, not pumpkin pie. There is a culinary product known as pumpkin pie, and it arrogates this season to itself; but it is merely an imi- tation of the genuine article, a fashionable fancy found on the tables of the cultured, whoare more particularabout their pronunciation than they are about their pie. In the good old days there were only punkin pies; but, with the advent of colleges, universi- ties, correspondence schools, and competitivedictionaries, society assumed the high- brow manner and announced that hereafter only pumpkin pie was good form. Of course that settled it for the punkin pie of our fathers, as farasits social position wasconcerned. But what is social position to a pie when it is punkin? Nothing whatever. Yester- day, to-day and forever, it remains the same. Thecul- tured society growing up about us and pink-teaing out its frivolous existence may sniff at punkin pie and stick its silver knife into pumpkin pie; eventhenewspapersmay quote the word ‘‘punkin,’’ as though the press had quaran- tined against it; but, just the same, a punkin pie is a pun- kin pie, and all the pumpkins on earth can’t make it any- thing else. It is the embodied piety of the martyrs un- changed by persecution or pronunciation; and one good, old-fashioned punkin pie is better eating than the proud- est product of a pumpkinized a F CEL MADID of i | aK cf 45 mm ie stoned fey civilization.. The pumpkin may assumé exotic airs and graces and swing its gold+ en circles in the autumn sun, but scratch it under the skin and you will find it isa plain punkin and never was anything else. That is the only reason a pumpkin pie is fit to eat at all. NOT IN IT. “* Here is where I drop out of the race! ’" comicbooks.com