Judge, 1912-08-17 · page 20 of 24
Judge — August 17, 1912 — page 20: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This comic sketch satirizes class assumptions and domestic life in the early 1900s. A vagrant appears at a wealthy woman's door, and she immediately launches into a condescending monologue cataloging every negative stereotype she assumes about him—that he's lazy, a burden on society, a liar, and a thief. The joke subverts expectations: the tramp wasn't actually going to ask for anything. More pointedly, it mocks *her* assumptions and reveals her own anxieties. The punchline is undercut when her husband Henry emerges from cleaning the chimney (servant's work), immediately quits, and declares he'll "never clean out another smoking chimney flue"—suggesting that *he's* the one fleeing his domestic servitude, not the tramp seeking handouts. The satire targets both snobbish class prejudice and the social instability of the era, where even middle-class domestic help was precarious.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
ap! 101 s lunch.” The vais is eoniaode “No ares ae oe in zest or flavor. ie Bottled ronly at the ane in crystal clear Poles, Advertising of Advertising— Everybody is talking about it, but Judge and Leslie's Weekly are doing it. (See page 2.) Read a live up-to- Are You An Elk? 84,2.) 27%; filled with all the latest news and gossip of Elkdom, $1.50 per year. National Elk’s Horn NORMAN M. VAUGHAN, Editor Mercantile Building ST. LOUIS, MO. Every new subscriber receives a bank free. ( Valley GEMS ea: oun! ‘oi , Willvend you any jag, pin or stud for examination—ali charges prepald—ne money Im advance. Writetday for free iiiartrated booklet, epecial prices ring moarare. ‘VALLEY GEM CO, 773 Saks Bldg ,Ladianapelis. 1nd The Mighty Dollar. HE DOLLAR is a useful thing! A single dollar buys a pair Of gloves, a book, the flowers of spring— A token for your lady fair. Six dollars buy an opera seat; Eight purchase you a new silk tile; Fifty, a suit of clothes complete, Cut in the very latest style. One hundred fay your fare to France; Five hundred buy a sealskin sack; Two thousand give a dinner dan Five thousand build a hunting shack. With twenty thousand you can buy A Rembrandt—genuine or not; With fifty thousand you may fly Abroad upon your private yacht. A million dollars, and you own A palace on the Avenue; Ten million seat you on a throne, Where all the world will bow to you. Dollars are useful things, indeed, And wondrous is their power to bless; But, pray, how many would you need To buy content or happiness ?—e. ». r. A Misplaced Tramp. Tramp (at front door)—** Pardon me, madam, I know what you're thinking. You think I'm a tramp."" Mrs. Holmes—' ust a regular, low-down tramp." "Yea, sirl’’ **And that work and I are strangers.” “TL certainly do!"" “And that I believe the world owes me a living and I'm out collecting it.” es, sir!"” “Yes, sir!" “And that I am about to tell yous hard-luck fairy tale.’" “That's my opinion; and if you don't move on I'll call my husband, who is in the kitchen cleaning out the chimney. You had better skip out before I call him."" “You think I am about to ask you for something to eat."’ “T suppose you are.’ “And that if you asked me in while you made a cup of coffee and cut the angel cake, I would steal your silver." “*What impudence! Henry, Henry!” “Who's Henry?” “That’s my husband. He'll give you all the angel cake you care for, I guess.” “*My dear madam, you have another guess coming." “Good gracious! Why don’t you come here?” “Tam here, Matilda, and I’m here to say that if I live a thousand years I'll never clean out another smoking chim- ney flue. Never again, Matilda!"’ JK be Ba Henry, Henry! In answering advertisements please mention JUDGE. It will be appreciated. comicbooks.com