Judge, 1915-08-28 · page 7 of 28
Judge — August 28, 1915 — page 7: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This story by Lewis Allen satirizes the disorientation of a successful city man (Hon. R. Martin Caldwell) returning to his small hometown after 25 years. The humor derives from his shock at modernization: the meeting house is now a movie theater; the blacksmith shop became an automobile garage; the old schoolhouse is a Boy Scouts headquarters; unpaved cow lanes are now macadamized streets with electric lights; the general store has been replaced by chain retail. The satire targets both nostalgia for the "old ways" and rapid American industrialization circa 1900-1920. Caldwell expected stasis but finds progress—a theme common to Judge magazine's commentary on social change. The caption quote about "machine guns" and "business" (visible in the sketch) appears unrelated, possibly from another page section or advertisement.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
nn” EAEGE Lf | “These machine guns are a great boon to my HE Hon. R. Martin Caldwell (he used to be Rufe Caldwell in the old days) alighted at the station at the county seat and secured a touring car to take him thirty miles north to the lit- tle town of Hilburg, which he once hon- ored by allowing it to claim the distinction of being his birth- place. ‘When he was twenty, he chucked up his job of hauling spruce logs for the Hilburg basket factory and went to the city. A quarter of a century later he had a little spare time and thought he would make a trip back to the old town. As the car came over the ridge road that led down into the village, he recognized Jim Weeks, an old schoolmate, so he took Jim in with him. “There's the old meeting house!’’ he ex- claimed. “That's the El Dorado the-a-ter now. They have movin’ pitchers ev'ry night there," explained Jim. “But where’s the old church now?"’ “Oh, they changed it inter a New Thought thingum-a-jig and hold meetin’s in th’ Sons of Temperance hall now. All th’ old inem- bers go to meetin’ down to th’ county seat."* “I should think it would be pretty tough on the old people to drive so far, and the little tots’*—— G = ‘ Q BACK HOME By LEWIS ALLEN | fa 6 “*Right around the corner is the Jenkins blacksmith shop. Remember the fun we used to have there?’’ “Uh-huh. We used to watch old Jenkins shoe Ben Atwood’s kickin’ hoss; but he changed it inter a garridge for ortermobeels an’ made a forchune. His boys is runnin’ of it now.”” “Well, well, that's strange! Thank good- ness the little old schoolhouse isn't changed any! I bet I can find my initials cut all over it’’—— ‘Oh, that ain’t th’ schoolhouse now, Rufe, That's th’ Boy Scouts headquarters. We got a new school buildin’ on Grand Boolevard'*—— “*Why—why, where is that crooked little cow lane that used to run from the Wiggin barn down to the lower meadow?"’ Zi (LETS | Gn 5 business ” levard. We got electric lights on it and macadam road. When old Wiggin died, his darter married one of the Jenkims boys, and he got on the seelectmen an’ made the town run a street through th’ farm."’ “‘Wonder if I'll know any of the boys over at the general store?"’ “Why, Rufe, there ain’t been no gineral store for ten years. There's a five-and-ten- cent store there and a deepartmunt store on t’other corner."’ “*Strange,’’ muttered the Hon. R. Martin Ethel—I think Belle is a bit unlucky! “Wa-al, most of us goes in our ortermo- Edith—Unlucky! Why, if beels,"* said Jim. “money, she'd die fire for his money, she'd die first. Belle should marry some old skeedinks ‘*That'’s Grand Boo- comicbooks.com