Judge, 1916-08-05 · page 9 of 28
Judge — August 5, 1916 — page 9: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains two separate humorous pieces satirizing early 20th-century leisure activities. **Main Cartoon (top):** A man returns home from a disastrous golf outing. The narrative describes his comical incompetence—he couldn't properly grip or swing a club, instead hitting a stranger in the throat. When he explained he was "playing golf," onlookers found him so naturally entertainingly awful they suggested he perform on stage instead. The satire mocks both amateur golfers' bumbling attempts at this fashionable new sport and the pretension surrounding golf as a gentlemanly pursuit. **Secondary Cartoon (bottom):** A humorous scene where a man chases a lightning bug at night, wanting to use its glow to see his watch. This satirizes the absurdity of relying on nature for practical solutions—a gentler, more whimsical jab at human foolishness. Both pieces employ slapstick humor typical of Judge's satirical approach to American social customs and leisure culture.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Wife—Well, John, here we are, home again. | John—Yes, another pleasure trip over, thank heaven! which I am rather well known I con- cluded to toss the balls in the air with one hand and bat them with the club held in the other. This I did—that is, I tried to do. L-used one club after the other—first the little clubs with iron heads, but they were so small it was like trying to find the ball with a manicurist’s tool. Then I took the club with the brass plate on the large wooden knob at the end, and swung at a ball which Thad tossed up. 1 hit this ball squarely and it sped through the air and struck a strange gentleman who was approaching along the grounds. It struck this gentle- man right on the Adam’s apple and for several moments he was unable to speak. But he made up for it. Atlast he asked me: “Why didn’t you call * Four’ “It was the first one I had batted, really,” [ explained. Then the stranger began looking at me without saying a word. He walked all around me, and studied me from every side. “Hey! Come and look at this! he cried to three more gentlemen and some small boys who were following him. They came and they all looked me all over, while the small boys giggled and laughed among themselves. “What in the name of heaven are you trying to do?” finally asked the gentle- man whom I had hit with the ball. “Lam playing golf,” I sured him, and told him just what I had done and how 1 had done it, and assured him further that I was following the advice of my friend, who was an expert golfer. All the gentlemen laughed, and uttered rather profane expressions of amazement and wonderment, but finally one of them said to me: “You don’t want to play golf, my friend. What you want to do is to go on the stage just as you are.” So Lam writing this article on golf for the talented and distinguished editor of JupceE, because I believe a man should do what he prom- ises to do. It is customary for publica- tions to reimburse their contributors for legitimate expenses incurred in gathering material for work requested, conse- quently the editor of Jupce will have the treasurer send me a draft covering "John, what in the world are you chasing around like that for at this hour?” “Um—I haven't a match, and I want to try and see my watch by this lightning bug.” comicbooks.com