Judge, 1916-04-22 · page 5 of 28
Judge — April 22, 1916 — page 5: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
The top illustration depicts "A Possible Scene—Any Small Town," showing a young doctor returning from WWI service in Belgium and Serbia, shell-shocked and traumatized. He's being questioned by villagers about his experiences. The accompanying story, "The Communist" by H.T. Nichols, satirizes post-war American anxieties about socialism. It follows Billy Harper, a working-class man in "Pleasantdale" who becomes radicalized after observing wealth inequality. The narrative mocks both communist ideology and the town's dismissive attitude toward labor concerns, suggesting that communism attracts ordinary citizens through legitimate grievances about economic fairness rather than ideological conversion. The satire targets early 1920s American fears of Bolshevism while questioning whether such movements arise from genuine social problems.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
POSSIBLE SCENE-ANY SMALL TOWN Young doctor —Yes, | ‘ve been at the front in Belgium and Serbia for the last year. Why. you must be just crazy to hear what's been going on in the town since you left. tell me! HE HUMAN race is the better fora fair ™ start. Hence you are entitled to ad- mire—and maybe envy—the humans of man oe THE Pleasantd ile i fe We Te ntdale is ion more or les3 involved in a start, anyway. Also it is fair in more respects than one. Quick growing shrubbery tempers the just-out-of-the-builders’-hands smartness of the cottages and bungalows, which, by the way, are a good deal alike, not in design but in cost That's another phase of the fairness. Nobody is criminally rich in Pleasantdale, or culpably poor And nobody is long married, and hence possessed, by the slow pro- cess of accumulation, of surplus belongings. Everybody is saving up to get something, and makes no secret of the plan. And all this helps to friendly rivalry, which shades into co-operation on the slightest provocation. Pleasantdale faces emergencies, lots of them. Any hamlet does, whose householders cherish blind faith in the genius of their better halves. Thus Billy Harper thought it the most natural thing in the world to lay hospitable hold on Raikes-Horger, and telephone to Mrs. Harper that he was bringing him down to dinner. “Have in the crowd, of course!” Billy directed. ‘They'll want to sce him. And they should—he’s a bird!” Now, Ph new—a condi Oe eee COMMUNIST NICHOLS Coming home we were torpedoed. —_Villoger--You—don't Then Billy, dismissing care from his masculine mind, “hung up”—and left Jessie, his adoring spouse, on tenter- hooks. Raikes-Horger a bird? Nay, nay! He was the most deliciously rearing lion out of Britain, who ever shook a socialistic mane to the enthralling of Bar Harbor and Newport. Oh, but how he did roar! Jessie, with much to do and few hours to do it, telephoned madly. “Bless you, of course we'll come!” Madge Barnett told her. “Raikes-Horger! What a strike! "Deed we'll be there—Jimmy and I, and the best table-cloth!” That was merely a sample reply. The whole of Pleasantdale was at stake. Talk about German effciency in mobilizing forces and munitions—wow! So, when Raikes-Horger ran his glance over table and company that night, he purred magnificently. ‘There was a charm, and it was a charm of opulence as well as of other sdothing, if selfish, cordi- tions. The snowy linen was marvelously fine; there was cut-glass which never had been had at cut prices; the silver centerpiece, hold- ing the perfect roses, he could have sworn had been picked out by somebody with a long purse as well as a keen eye. And with half a dozen young and pretty women, bright-eyed, and turning to him as flowers turn to the sun—oh well; noblesse oblige. The king parades himself because that is what he is paid for; the performing lion performs because that is how he pays for his comicbooks.com