Judge, 1916-07-29 · page 9 of 28
Judge — July 29, 1916 — page 9: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page from *Judge* satirizes Jewish immigrant characters through dialect humor and workplace dynamics. The top cartoon, "Johnnie's Idyl—When Free-dom Goes the Limit," depicts a crowded street scene with various commercial stands, likely mocking American consumer culture and public spectacle. The main feature, "Markowitz and Henry," presents two Jewish office workers (identifiable by names and Yiddish-inflected English) debating summer heat. Henry complains about the sweltering office; his boss Markowitz responds with philosophical fatalism, citing historical temperature data and absurdly comparing American political instability—where a State Department official becomes a newspaper reporter and vice versa—to humanity's inability to control weather. The satire targets both the characters' anxious working-class perspective and American bureaucratic incompetence. The bottom illustration shows a tired restaurant patron requesting hash instead of steak, continuing the mundane, relatable-humor theme. The comedy relies on ethnic stereotyping through exaggerated dialect, a common (if now offensive) convention in early 20th-century American humor publications.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
JOHNNIE’S IDYL—WHEN FREE-DOM GOES THE LIMIT MARKOWITZ AND HENRY-—Trey Discuss the Weather and the Weather Bureau By {EW! I wish I was in Alaska!” exclaimed Henry Sha- piro, the bookkeeper, wiping the perspiration from his brow with one hand, and dipping his pen into the ink with theother. “Max, I’ma regeler schlemicl! even if I got to it myself. Here I go away on my vacation the beginning of the summer when it is so cold yet the heart by a landlord and the whole time after I got to schwitz in the city Ii a Toikish bath. Next ycar I di by the calendar when it commences summer. I'll go by the thermometer. I'll wait till it gets true hot and then I run to the country for a litle cold storage. I tell you I can’t stand it in this office with only a second-hand fan. It’s hotter than——” “Keep cool, Henry!” interrupted Max Markowitz, Henry's boss and brother-in-law. “Look at me! I never get excited. Lalways takc it ea What is it if itisa litle warm? It ain't so hot like you think. Look in the paper it stands here black on white that in 1867 it was two degrees more yet. In 1879 it was four more than to-day. In 188 “What do I care if a thousand years back it was more hotter!” broke in Henry. “A thousand years from now it may be so hot that fancy ice-cream will be soived in poikelators like I saw coffee by my rich cousin Epstein, Let my grandmother and grandchildren worry. All I care about is to-day. Now, it’s terrible, awful, hot! I’m melting to pieces!” “Keep cool!” again advised Markowitz, mopping his fore- head with his handkerchief. ‘The more you talk about the hitz, the more excited you get and what more excited you get the hotter you get and what more hotter you are the more you talk. So it keeps on getting hotter and hotter by you like an engine, You manufacture more hits with your tongue in one minute than what they give you a whole year in an apartment house with steam heat in a contract. What's the use in getting excited, it hoits you something? Don’t get excited. Keep cool!” “What do you mean keep cool?” demanded Henry angrily. “ Lou RAB “A million times you tell me, ‘keep cool.’ You yourself look so cool like a woman after a special bargain sale. Your collar is a sponge and your face looks like a regeler tomato; and the way you talk with your tongue somebody would think you was an ice box!” “What's the use hollering about the weather, can you change it?” responded Markowitz in a philosophical tone. “They can’t even change it in Washington! Where in a secunde a Secretary of State becomes a reporter for a paper and @ paper man gets changed into a minister like by magic. In [ | Waiter—A steak, as usual, sir? Patron—No, I'm tired to-night. Bring me some hash. comicbooks.com