Judge, 1912-10-05 · page 17 of 26
Judge — October 5, 1912 — page 17: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
The top cartoon satirizes excessive, trendy beauty treatments. A barber promotes newfangled gadgets ("electric massage," "compressed air frazzle," "vibratory admonisher") to a client who sarcastically compares the sales pitch to the Supreme Court's aggressive antitrust case against U.S. Steel—suggesting the barber is being as forceful and annoying as that famous legal action. Below are several humorous short pieces: **"She Was a Debutante"** mocks Washington D.C. society by showing a young Black maid demanding every night off because she's now a "debutante"—satirizing how African American servants mimicked upper-class social aspirations. **Other brief jokes** play on double meanings: "off and on" railroad travel, a doctor who always finds something wrong, a suitor without enough money ("rocks") to marry, and a gas meter beyond calculation. The satire targets social pretension, particularly among African Americans imitating white society's status-seeking behavior—reflecting the era's problematic racial attitudes.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
BATHZ Barber—'* Wouldn't you like to have an electric massage or a compressed air frazzle, or a vibratory admonisher, or a singed shingle, or a ’—— Client—"' Say, look bere! You'd think this was the Supreme Court and I was the steel trust."” She Was a Debutante. HAT Washington, D. C., has a well- advertised social life and an up-to- date colored population is illustrated by the following: Young Mrs. H—— required anurse for her children and advertised to fill the position. From among the applicants she selected a neat and attrac- tive young colored girl, soon arranging most of the prelim- inary details of hiring. “You may have two nights a week out,’’ Mrs. H—— said kindly. “That wouldn’ do foh me,’’ the colored girl answered quickly. ‘‘Ah must habebery night out dis wintah.’” “Out every night!"” plied Mrs. H——, in astonish- ment. ‘‘And why this win- ter?” “Well, yo’ see’’—the col- ored girl hesitated a moment —“‘yo’ see, Ah’m a debera- tante dis yeah, an’ Ah mus’ be out at night.’* re- Off and On. First drummer—‘‘Have you traveled much over the breakneck railroad?”’ Second drummer—“‘Off and on—yes."" wait SO THOROUGH Clarice—""Well, aunt, how do you like your new doctor ?"" Aunt—" Ob, immensely! He's so thorough. He never comes to see me without finding some little thiag the matter with me."" Jones—‘* What's Poorley? Budd for some time. i Lacks Material. the matter with He’s been going with Miss Hasn't he got the ‘sand’ to propose ?’’ Brown—‘‘Oh, yes; but not the ‘rocks’ to get married.’’ Girls. The way they act shows love is blind, And makes one jealous as Othello; For when they fall in love, you find It’s always with the other fellow. A Difference. “And the footpad relieved you of your valuables?” “*He took 'em, but darned if I experienced any relief !’” Quite So. We can measure the meter of music and rhyme, but the one on gas is beyond compute. comicbooks.com