Judge, 1912-02-10 · page 11 of 24
Judge — February 10, 1912 — page 11: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is satirical commentary on the famous (false) legend of young George Washington confessing to chopping down his father's cherry tree. The text humorously claims Judge's Detective Bureau discovered an "eighteenth-century" portrait "stolen from Philadelphia," recently restored by "M. Emil Floh." The satire works on multiple levels: Judge is mocking its own decade of cherry-tree and hatchet jokes as if validating them through fake historical "discovery." The portrait itself appears quite dark and crude—hardly conclusive evidence. The joke targets both the widespread perpetuation of apocryphal Washington anecdotes and the magazine's own reliance on tired material. By claiming the portrait "proves conclusively the truth of the cherry-tree episode," Judge winks at readers that even dubious "evidence" gets used to support beloved national myths. The entire piece gently ribbed American hagiography and historical embellishment.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
LITTLE GEORGE WASHINGTON AS HE REALLY WAS. Jence’s Detective Bureau has made a startling discovery. This picture was stolen early in the eighteenth century from a famous gallery in Philadelphia, showing that the art of taking pictures from galleries was perfected at that early date. It has recently been restored by the eminent sleuth, M. Emil Floh at great trouble and expense. The portrait proves conclusively the truth of the cherry-tree episode, and vindicates the authors of the ten thousand cherry tree and hatchet jokes that have appeared in JuDGE during the last quarter century. comicbooks.com