Judge, 1912-09-14 · page 13 of 24
Judge — September 14, 1912 — page 13: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This satirical page attacks smoking through multiple vignettes and poetry, reflecting early-20th-century anti-tobacco sentiment. The three caricatured heads at top represent archetypal smokers: an old gentleman, college boy, and fashionable woman—mocked for their pipe, cigarette, and tobacco habits respectively. The jokes mock smokers' self-deception: a bachelor romanticizes smoke rings while ignoring their emptiness; a husband promises his wife he's "trying" to quit while clearly continuing; a man obsesses over his pipe as his sole passion. W.J. Lampton's lengthy poem frames tobacco as a "vile weed" causing physical and moral harm, yet paradoxically admits its comfort—capturing the era's conflicted view of smoking as simultaneously seductive and destructive. The final joke about "fly swatting" on a farm is unrelated humor filler. Overall, the page reflects Progressive-Era concerns about tobacco's grip on Americans (noted spending over 2 million dollars daily), presenting smoking as weakness and delusion rather than manly virtue.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
HIS MIND1” All Smoke! SMOKE ring rose from my cigar— You scarcely saw its silvery gleam; But all the landscape near and far Alive with pretty girls did seem. Oh, precious dream! oh, lovely dream! Oh, happy, little, snappy dream! A breeze came wandering through the night And bore my smoke ring in its wake, And though I puffed with all my might, No other circlet could I make — No fairy ring, no airy ring, No magic, little, witching ring! For as the wind did not come back That took my luring dream from me, E’en best Havanas to lack The charm to waken ‘rev- erie— A classy sort of reverie- A bachelor’s pet reverie! —Lide Ket Wigeins Good Place. “What a fickle-minded man Gerald is!’" “‘Has to be. He's in the weather bureau."’ seemed An Innocent Bystander. “Do youown amotorcar?”’ “No; I merely have a, Prejudiced. **I don’t believe old Bibson is capable of loving anything but his pipe.’” “*That's because he has the tobacco heart." One Advantage. One advantage of indulging in day dreams is that your pipe never gues out. AN INDEFINITE PROMISE. Harrict—" You promised me, Harry, before we were married, Passing interest in them."” that you would try to stop smoking.” Harry—"' Well, dear, I am trying.”” Tobacco. [Nore—Americans spend over 2 million dollars a day for tobacco.) Vile weed, the upas plant that burns Upon the nation’s altars, in its urns; Whose widespread smoke of sacrifice Far more than sums a ransomed prince’s price; Whose odor, like a fetid fancy, fills ‘The atmosphere with rank, mephitic ills; Whose yellow juice runsdown in streams, Transforming into night- mares golden dreams: Whose clutch upon the hu- man taste Remains unbroken, placed; Whose dire effects on stom- ach, nerves, and mind Make wrecks of man and womankind— Vile weed, vile weed, no lan- guage can Set forth your awful harm to man! And yet we're bound to say, vile weed, There’s nothing like you when we need A soothing solace, something which Is no less good to poor than rich. undis- —W. J. Lampton. Livelier Sport. Rodney—‘‘Spent your va- cation on uncle’s farm, eh? Any fly fishing up that way ?’” Reidy (fiercely)--‘*No; swatting!’’ comicbooks.com