Judge, 1917-04-14 · page 5 of 28
Judge — April 14, 1917 — page 5: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
**Top Image: "The Notion Counter"** This illustration depicts a woman at a piano reading sheet music by lamplight, surrounded by flowers. The satirical essay critiques shallow social ambitions—how people become "prominent" through superficial means (gossip, shopping, reporting trivial news). The woman at the piano likely represents cultured refinement, contrasting with the essay's mockery of those who pursue status through empty social climbing. **Bottom Cartoon: "Darn Prudes!"** A figure at a beach expresses frustration about prudish bathing suit regulations ("All persons must wear regulation bathing suits!"). This satirizes early 20th-century strict dress codes for swimming, mocking both the rigid moral standards and those enforcing them. The cartoon suggests irritation with restrictive social conventions limiting personal freedom.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
THE NOTION COUNTER SIMPLE WAY to become “prominent,” if you area clubman, or “‘pretty,” if you are a shopgirl, is to have something happen to you worth reporting. A woman is often a child chasing a butterfly, throwing it away after she has caught it, and crying for it after it is gone. If some of our very nicest people had known that cabbage is sold by the ton they would have stopped eating it long ago. The really clever man is the man who thinks of a lot of er things to say and then is clever enough not to say them. Some of our best people got rich so quickly that they can’t swing a golf-stick without first spitting on their hands. Future geography students will suppose, of course, that Michigan named its capital in honor of our secretary of state. When people move into the neighborhood they should be compelled to bring a recommendation from their last place. The man who yells the loudest about the higher cost of living is the man whose salary helped to do it. Woman is the combination on the safe of human happiness; and the combination frequently changes. Our young folks don’t consider our wishes old-fashioned any more; they don’t consider them at all. Daughter says it is awful hard to get up a party, but the hardest party to get up is daughter. Of cities in which to live, New York is my second choice; any other city is my first choice. Miss Rankin’s election seems all the more remarkable if you have ever seen a woman run. If I understand Christian Science, even your bones are merely a frame of mind. The realization of failure may bring more content than the knowledge of success. The twenty froggies that went to school probably were going to the junior hop. Potatoes are going up, and what goes up must come doyn. The swelling that accompanies gout may have started at the other end. Someone asked me how I know all the things I write; perhaps I don’t. —By Douglas Malloch Alt PFRSONS SWIMMING HERE MUST WEAR BATHING sutrs! DARN PRUDES! comicbooks.com