Judge, 1916-10-28 · page 10 of 28
Judge — October 28, 1916 — page 10: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This 1920s satirical piece from *Judge* mocks both labor unions and married men through Yiddish-inflected dialogue between **Markowitz** (a skirt manufacturer) and **Henry Shapiro** (his brother-in-law, a bookkeeper). **The Satire:** The joke conflates labor strikes with domestic marital conflict. Markowitz complains that wives are "bosses" and "money spenders" who interrupt men's leisure (gambling, card games). Henry jokingly proposes an "Independent Husbands' Protective Union"—applying union rhetoric to men's grievances against their wives. **The Point:** The satire cuts multiple ways: it mocks both labor organizers (reducing their legitimate grievances to triviality) and henpecked husbands (treating their complaints as self-pitying). The humor relies on the incongruity of unionizing against wives, and the "demands" (midnight poker games, increased "pinochle hours") trivialize worker demands for better conditions. **Context:** The 1920s saw major labor unrest and union organizing. This piece uses ethnic immigrant characters (Yiddish speech patterns) to satirize working-class concerns as petty domestic squabbles rather than serious economic issues.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
EASILY SATISFIED Modern débutante (to fiancé)—Do you know, dear, I could be perfectly contented in a little home like this? MARKOWITZ AND HENRY DISCUSS A UNION OF MARRIED MEN Ky LOU RYTHING they got strikes this year and by ything they got unions,”” commented Max Mar- kowitz, the skirt manufacturer, while glancing at the head- lines of an ev ig paper. “Sure,” jested Henry Sh: piro, Markowitz’s brother-in- law and bookkeeper, ‘even when two people get married a union and pretty soon ot little walking d running around making de- mands.” “You're laughing and by you it’s a joke,” continued Markowitz earnestly, “but be- lieve me if you was a manufac- turer or a married man, you would laugh from the other side of your face when you even hoid the woid ‘UNION.’ And I mean the marriage union too. Only yesterday night I was playing a little ‘auction’ with Grossman and Louis Marcus; it was only eleven o'clock and I was out more than four dol- lars, but what does Minnie do? She hollered that we should be ashamed of ourselves gambling so late. I was ashamed myself the way she was acting in front of my friends—high class business men with swell ratings—because I wouldn’t go to the movies with her and kept my appointment by pinocle. She looked like she wanted to see us shoveling coal a million feet under the oith, instead of dealing cards on five floors up- stairs me, it ain’t the woikingmen what has real griev hat does Davis the union delegate call it?” “Grievances,” replied Henry. RAB “Yes, grievances,” affirmed Markowitz. “It's the hus- bands what’s got real big ones. They are notting but errand boys and check writers while the weiber are the bosses and money spenders! It’s about time there was an end to women stopping our pleasures.” “Nu,” suggested Henry, “why not form a union from hus- bands, an Independent Husbands’ Protective Union, and —" “That ain't such a bad idee,” interrupted Markowitz half in earnest. “Is it?” “Soitenly it ain't a bad idee,” replied Henry smilingly “If the unions help all the people what are bossed too much, why shouldn’t the organizing a union help.the husbands? ‘In union there is strength,’ like my night school teacher said. Let the husbands get together, make out a full list of demands like the skoit makers’ union, and if the weiber do not give in, let them go out on strike and refuse to sign checks. Everybody has been striking ex- cepting husbands; why not them? Let them demand increases too! Increases in the hours of pinocle!” “Ah, that would be pproved Mar- z longingly. “With midnight as aminimum,” continued Henry. “*What’s mini- mum?” inquired Mar- kowitz. comicbooks.ge¢