Judge, 1916-09-09 · page 12 of 32
Judge — September 9, 1916 — page 12: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a Yiddish-dialect comedy story satirizing Jewish immigrant fraternal organizations and their social impact on family life. Max Markowitz, a skirt manufacturer, complains to his bookkeeper that Meyer Gold—a factory employee—has become obsessed with lodge membership, neglecting his home and wife. The satire targets "Lodgenkrankheit" (lodge sickness): Gold has transformed from a devoted husband who helped with dishes and childcare into an absent lodge officer. He now spends evenings at fraternal meetings and committees, earning status symbols like "loving cups" (engraved trophies). The joke exposes how working-class immigrant men pursued respectability and community status through secret societies and fraternal orders, often at their families' expense. The cartoon and photograph illustrate the pretension and elaborate ceremony surrounding lodge life—the formal dress, ceremonial objects, and hierarchical ranks (Past Grandmaster, Deputy Doorkeeper)—presenting it as comical vanity that disrupts domestic life.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
MARKOWITZ AND HENRY— They Discuss Lodges and Loving Cups by LOU RAR “He: a fine job I got! complained Max Markowitz, the | Markowitz in surprise, “how do you know I want to speak skirt manufacturer, as he closed the office door witha — to you?” bang after ushering out a weeping lady visitor. “If her hus “You want to speak with me?” asked Meyer Gold.“ Alle- band don’t come home in the night, i right, IT want to speak with you too. I want to show my business because he woiks for me in something beautiful. Look what I got in this box. Ain't the day. It ain’t enough what I have dandy? So fancy. like for a prince. Look how the silver a whole day from them with their price — shines on it! Regelar silver, sterling 86!” committees, and shop committees what “What is that? Is that yours?” inquired Markowitz. SI give me more trouble in a minute than “Mine?” repeated Meyer Gold. “No, Mr. Markowitz, D~ What they got in Mexico a whole year I ain't only in the lodge one year. Wait, wait! When I'll Sz Z< —then I got to see also that they behave be like Past Grandmaster Jacobson twenty-five years, then V'll themselves in the night! How could I get a loving cup just like this. But now I'm already—and I'm refuse a woman what comes crying to only one year in the lodge—second deputy doorkeeper and you like Niagara Falls that her husband what's a foreman from vice-chairman of the committee on ravings. The com- the operators comes home with the milkman like a fancy actor?” mittce on loving cups turned it over to me to have it engraved. “What's the matter with Meyer Gold?” inquired Henry — and put on Past’ Grandmaster obson’s name. We've got Shapiro, Markowitz’s bookkeeper and brother-in-law. “Is a grand mecting to-night with a big smoker and supper. And he a drinker, a gambler, a loa! “What! Meyer Gold a drinker?” exclaimed Markowitz. “Go on. When he wants a strong drink he takes a Russian cocktail—a glass of tea with lemon. Hea gambler? He don’t know the difference even between a club and a spade, and he don’t even look at another goil even if she was a picktche like Lillian Russell. “Then what’s the matter with him?” inquired Henry. “He ain't such a bad feller. What does she nt from him?” “He's got trouble what many men are suffering from. He’s ot Lodgenkrankheit. He's a member of the Royal Order of od Fellers, and when a feller is a good feller by the lodge he's a bad feller by the home. She told me that before he became a good feller he was a poifect thirty-six of a husband and would help with the dishes. Sunday he would hold the baby with the bottle. Holidays he would take the children to the park with peanuts. But how he spends so much time in his home like a fireman from narsic. I promised her I'll call him in and if he don’t promise to stay home by night, he can’t woik here by day. She wouldn’t let me call him in before her face, but I promised 1’ ll fix it. It’s a fine business! What shall I do, Henry? I—— Here Markowitz was interrupted by the entrance through the factory door marked, “No admission,” of | man The office manager having lately been made a lieutenant, is overheard carrying a small box under his arm. y, Meyer,” cried practicing the words of command. comicbooks.com