Judge, 1914-03-07 · page 10 of 24
Judge — March 7, 1914 — page 10: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This Judge magazine page satirizes early 20th-century American social pretensions through several sketches: **"Palm Peach in New York"**: A Kansas couple, newly arrived in the city, adopt fashionable radical ideologies. The husband becomes a "theoretical horsethief" and his wife organizes a "Society of Benevolent Shoplifters"—justified as helping overworked clerks by reducing their sales burden. The satire mocks how city intellectuals adopt socialist/anarchist rhetoric while actually proposing criminal acts, presented as theoretical benevolence. The rural couple's naive adoption of this sophistry exposes urban hypocrisy. **"Sunday Baseball—A Home Run"**: An illustration showing people playing baseball, likely satirizing Sunday recreational activities or changing social norms around leisure. **Minor sketches**: Include jokes about infidelity ("Spilling the Beans"), modern morality ("Revised Mother Goose" depicting rapid marriage/divorce), currency circulation, and romantic disappointment. The page's recurring theme: mocking pretentious urban society and misapplied ideological justifications for questionable behavior.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
PEACH PALM In New York WHEN the parlor socialist and philo- sophical anarchist had ceased argu- ing, as they sometimes will, they turned to the man from Kansas, sitting quietly beside his demure little wife. “What, sir, is your theory of life?” they asked, with politely wrinkled brows. The man from Kansas squirmed uneasily in his chair. “I dunno as I ever thought much about it until we come to th’ city,’’ he finally ventured. ‘‘But my wife an’ me decided we'd better get in th’ band wagon and do a little something fer suffering humanity. So she organized the Society of Benevolent Shoplifters. You see, these here clerks in th’ stores have to work so hard that she and some of her friends think it is helpful to go around and pick up little things here and there, so they won’t have to sell so much, Just to sort of relieve th’ clerks, you know. As fer me, I’m somewhat puzzled about myself. But I’ve about decided I'm a theoretical horsethief. You see, th’ horses in these big cities have to work so hard that it seems proper to steal one once in a while and turn it out to pasture. Of course we don’t either of us do these things—but, shoot! as long as you've got to have a theory of some kind to get along here, we just thought we'd think up something different !"’ —R. C. McEtravy. sep TPN jeatee SPILLING THE BEANS “Henry, I didn’t mean to call you Frank. I was thinking this was Friday.” Revised Mother Goose Solomon Grundy, Born on Monday, Smoked on Tuesday, Drank on Wednesday, Tangoed Thursday, Slummed on Friday, Married on Saturday, Divorced on Sunday— But that wasn’t the end of Solomon Grundy. Not Very Far “Here's a dollar back that I marked and put into circu- lation only day before yester- day. Surprising, eh “Oh, I don’t kno A dollar doesn’t go very far these days.’” True Mrs. Waynpp— Few men marry their first love. Mrs. Blase—And fewer marry their last. The new Road to Ruing— first, Hesitation; then One SUNDAY BASEBALL—A HOME RUN Step and then eventually the Tango. comicbooks.com