Judge, 1912-10-26 · page 9 of 24
Judge — October 26, 1912 — page 9: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
The top cartoon, "Just Seasick," depicts a naval or ship setting where a sailor offers a passenger five dollars to retrieve a fern from the music room so he can "smell earth once more before I leave this vale of tears"—satirizing the exaggerated melodrama of seasickness sufferers. The text below discusses Halloween pranks, distinguishing between college pranks (stealing gates, church bells, pawnbroker signs) deemed socially acceptable versus dynamite-rigged stockings, which cross into criminal territory under New York's Penal Code. The remaining comics are brief social jokes: "Ambiguous" plays on misunderstanding romantic proposals; "The Ultimate Victor" uses the boxer John Barleycorn (personified alcohol) to mock drinking; and "In the Same Box" satirizes a nervous suitor's fumbled marriage proposal. The page combines gentle social satire typical of Judge magazine's humor—poking fun at male anxieties, class distinctions, and Victorian courtship customs.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
dynamite. The presence of any one of these foreign substances in the stocking removes the act from the realm of practical joking and automatically places it under the jurisdiction of the Penal Code, and therefore may not be indulged in with impunity by persons not connected with the Police Department of the City of New York. In University and other rural cir- cles Halloween is regarded as the psychological moment for the gather- ing of souvenirs and for the embel- lishment of public edifices with adorn- ments not included in the original architectural plans, the law permit- ting college men and yokels to remove gates of all kinds from their original setting and to use them to decorate the walls of their apartments. Church bolls, cast-iron stags and other bits of portable ironwork may be appro- priated with impuni and such bits JUST SEASICK. ward, I'll give you five dollars if you ‘ll bring me that fern out of the music room and let me smell earth once more before I leave this vale of tears."* Public Library or the hanging of a Pawn- broker's emblem over the facade of a church are regarded as wholly de ri- gueur, if not entirely au fait. AMBIGUOUS, * How would you like me for your husband ?"” Bobbing for Apples with a pretty girl by the light of a Jack-o’-lantern is a diversion much practiced on Hallow- een and is provocative of much mirth and an occasional matrimonial en- gagement, whence the phrase, “There’s many a slip ’twixt the pip and the lip.’” The Ultimate Victor. The pugilist who in his day All comers meets with tumid scorn Himself at last is put away In bouts with old John Barleycorn. In the Same Box. Stern parent—‘‘ Look here, Mr. Bib- by! You have been calling on my daughter regularly for six months. I think it is about time that I inquired as to sour intentions.’” Young Bibby—‘‘That’s exactly what Ithink! Either Mabel isn’t able to muster up the courage to ask me or she has forgotten that it is nearly of delicate humor as the placing of a . Liobel—** Oh, I should like nothing better."” Lager Beer Sign over the front of the Fred—"" Ex—ahera | Good evening." the end of leap year.” comicbooks.com