Judge, 1912-02-10 · page 12 of 24
Judge — February 10, 1912 — page 12: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a humorous satirical piece using monkeys as a vehicle for social commentary. The text makes several barbed jokes: **The Darwin Reference**: The piece sarcastically notes that monkeys supposedly descend from humans—reversing actual evolutionary theory—to mock both monkey vanity and human foolishness. **Gender Satire**: Fig. IV jokes that female monkeys chatter twice as fast as males, claiming this "proves" Darwin's theory. This is likely a jab at contemporary stereotypes about women's talkativeness. **Class Commentary**: References to monkeys earning money for "Italian music" (street organ grinders) and being "bound" to travelers by "strong ties" mock working-class street performers and their animals. **Dinner Scene** (Fig. VI): The punchline that monkeys at fashionable dinner parties are distinguished "by the fact that they do not make foolish remarks" satirizes high society's pretensions—suggesting wealthy diners are less sensible than actual monkeys. The overall tone mocks human vanity, gender stereotypes, and class pretension through the guise of "natural history."
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
LESSONS _ IN FIG. 1. FIG. IV. Fic. VI. UNNATURAL HISTORY. The Monkey. THE MONKEY is a comical-looking specimen‘of an ani- mal, although probably a monkey doesn’t look any more foolish to us than we do toa monkey. (See Fig. I.) A real monkey is born, not made; but sometimes we see a woman make a monkey out of a man. It is a matter of pride with the monkey family that the human race is supposed to have descended from it--a proof that the mon- key is on a higher plane than the man. Monkeys can do nearly everything a man can, but most of them have better sense than to try. (See Fig. II.) They are philanthropic creatures and have been known to raise large sums of money in the interest of Italian music. They seem to have a great sympathy for that class of travelers whose life is a constant grind, and are often bound to them by strong ties. (See Fig. III.) Every child ought to know that a monkey is an anthropoidian, quadrumanous mammal, and that the Old World monkeys, either simids or cercopithecids, are catar- rhine. If you remember this, you will be able to distin- guish between the different brands of monkeys at a glance. A female monkey chatters twice as fast asa male. (See Fig. IV.) This is said by some to be one of the chief proofs of the soundness of the Darwinian theory. Monkeys are fond of nuts and will bolt them down eagerly. For this reason, perhaps, the useful device called the monkey wrench was named after them. (See Fig. V.) Monkeys are some- times entertained by fashionable people at dinners, where they may be distinguished from the other guests by the fact that they do not make foolish remarks. (See Fig. V1.) Knowing these things about monkeys, children, you will be able to pick them out from among the other animals at the zoo, provided the keepers will allow you todo so. (See Fig. VII.) —Carleton G. Garretson. PIG. Vi. comicbooks.com