Judge, 1915-05-29 · page 14 of 24
Judge — May 29, 1915 — page 14: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a fable-style story disguised as animal fiction, but the text reveals it as political allegory about race and survival strategies in the Jim Crow South. The "opossum" represents Black Americans who rely on passive resistance—"feigning death" and submission—as survival tactics. The "raccoon" represents those advocating more aggressive self-protection and resistance. The "brawny negro" hunter and his dogs represent white violence and control. The moral—that "simulation is the strategy of fools and cowards"—argues *against* passive accommodation, instead endorsing active resistance and retreat to defensible positions ("fortress among the rocks"). **The satire's target is unclear**: Judge was generally conservative. This could mock either passive accommodation *or* the raccoon's prideful rejection of it. Without knowing the publication date and author, the exact political intent—whether this supports or mocks Black resistance strategies—cannot be determined.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
A RACCOON was sitting in the moonlight on a ledge of rock near his lair, listening to the baying of houndsecho- ing through the surrounding hills. Below him stood a persimmon tree in which he saw an -~ opossum clambering and picking off now and then the ripe fruit. “ Halloo!” laimed the raccoon, “did you hear those ‘possum dogs? They are hunting for you.” “No, they are ‘coon dogs,” said the opossum. “If they find me I will escape by feigning death, the protection that has always saved me in time of danger.” “But why don’t you take waming and retreat as | do when the d are after me, into a fortress among the rocks, where you can't be reached by dogs or man?” “I prefer the ways of the ‘possum to the ways of the “coon,” replied the opossum. At that very moment the dogs began barking under the persimmon tree, spied the opossum, and following them came a brawny negro who with a long pole knocked Mr. ‘Possum from the tree, and he fell among the eager dogs. Simulation being his only weapon, the raccoon saw him bome away by his black captor, and he said to himself, : “Simulation is the strategy of fools and the weapon of cowards.” I4 aS: ae ‘ded