Judge, 1915-10-23 · page 15 of 28
Judge — October 23, 1915 — page 15: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains three distinct humor pieces from what appears to be an early 20th-century rural American setting (references to "Pollywog"): **"Egg View Notes"** - A column of brief, disconnected anecdotes about small-town characters (Witt Larcom, Truman Bilge, etc.). The humor is gentle, folksy, and absurdist—a man upset his compass keeps pointing the same direction; someone worried walls have ears because his neighbor sings constantly; a traveling salesman needlessly insults a grocer at checkers. **"Information Desired"** - A brief dialect joke where a Black man ("Brother Berrybutton") uses deliberately evasive logic when accused of raiding a henhouse, claiming he needs clarification about *which* night—satirizing both racial stereotypes and legalistic hair-splitting. **"The Big Brother"** - A sentimental poem (by William Wallace Whitelock) recalling childhood abuse from an older brother Jim, presented as endearing nostalgia. The punchline: the narrator is now 6'2" while Jim is 5'4"—implying reversed power dynamics and potential comeuppance, though presented humorously rather than threateningly.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
A FEW LINES Egg View Notes ITT LARCOM, who sent off last week after a com) so he could always come very close to knowing exactly where he was at, believes he’s been badly cheated, as it keeps pointing in the same direction, all the time. Truman Bilge stood on a Pollywog street corner, Tuesday afternoon, busily engaged in chewing some tobacco, when a strange smarty stopped to ask Truman what was his hurry? Ambrose Crosslots says: “In a woman’s mirror, two's a crowd.” Ery Neff, our barber, who has read, or heard some place, that walls have ears, hopes it’s a big lic, because Cylindra Berger is spending most of her spare time these days, at home, trying to sing. Some remark that Milt Shirks made about Dow Ludlum, in the black-smith shop, Thursday noon, caused everybody to laugh, ABOUT TO BE TAKEN excepting Dow, who got just mad enough to that Milt was like Ote Gim- , in one way, which way was that Ote’s horse sleeps with his shoes on every night, and so does Milt. Corny Paine ain’t having very good luck with the second-hand automobile he got hold of in Pollywog Monday. The cylinder keeps acting up on him. One of them there big-city drummers, who got into a checker game, and a wrangle, Thursday afternoon, with Bill Waite, our grocer, shook his fist at Bill’s nose, saying he bet anything Bill couldn’t play even a game of tennis without a racket of some kind. —Leslie Van Every. Information Desired The Colonel—Look here, Berrybutton! Are you the confounded black scoundrel that broke into my hen house the other night? Brother Berrybutton—Dunnuh, sah, whud- der I is or not, twell you-all specifies what night "twuz. BY THE ENEMY The Big Brother REMEMBER, I remember My little trundle bed, F-om which Jim used to dump me out Upon my childish head. He never scemed to think that I Might crack my foolish spine— And I, I looked on Jim as if He had been half divine. I remember, I remember The stream behind the school Where Jim would duck me <ill it seemed I'd swallowed half the pool. But, ob! I never told on him! T felt too honored then, For I was only six years old, While Jim was nearly ten. I remember, I remember A lot of foolish things Jim did to me while still he seemed. An angel without wings. But let me tell you this, good sir: He does such things no more, For I am six feet, two, to-day, While Jim is five feet, four. —William Wallace Whitelock, comicbooks.com