Judge, 1917-07-14 · page 17 of 27
Judge — July 14, 1917 — page 17: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains three distinct humorous pieces satirizing early 20th-century American social attitudes: **"Giving Employment"** presents a Martian visitor observing American labor practices. The satire critiques how employers frame employment as a *favor* to workers—a great "gift"—when the worker actually needs the job to survive. The Martian's alien perspective exposes this hypocrisy: on Mars, conferring *leisure* (freedom from work) is considered the real favor. This mocks American capitalist ideology that treats job provision as benevolence rather than mutual economic exchange. **"A Queer Caller"** jokes about an escaped asylum patient who visits a newspaper editor and, despite knowing nothing about journalism, flatters the editor's skills—inadvertently providing honest praise that refreshes him more than genuine conversation. **"Qualified Worship"** and the opening golf joke are lighthearted domestic humor about women's domestic failures (bad cooking, "ferro-concrete bread") and the reliability of cautious husbands. The cartoon at top depicts two women at a country club; the caption suggests skepticism toward men's claims of golfing competence.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
XUM WAN SWAN ° 4 If, AT THE MINIKAHDA COUNTRY CLUB, MINNEAPOLIS Betty—When a man says that he “ goes around in par,” what does he mean > Mary—That he's not to be trusted ! GIVING EMPLOYMENT HE Man From Mars ne to a hillside where a large group of men were working with a high degree of diligence. So strenuous were their tasks apparently that they did not have time to look up or to mop the perspira- tion from their brows. Standing at one side where he could command a good ew of the workmen was a single in- dividual who seemed to have charge of the act The Man From Mars stopped and er watching for awhile addressed another onlooker who stood near. “Who are all those men?” he asked. “Those are laboring men,” replied the other: “ And who is this man standing apart?” “That is the employer.” “Is the employer punishing the crs for some misdemeanor?” “Oh, not at all. The emple conferring a great favor upon them. He is giving them employment.” abor- yer is “Do they want to be given employ- ment?” “Oh, yes, indeed. There is nothing better you can do for a man than give him employment.” “That’s very strange,” rejoined the Man From Ma “Where I come from the greatest favor you can do a man is to confer leisure upon him.” —Ellis O. Jones. A Queer Caller “PVE enjoyed a call from an eccentric gentleman yesterday,” confessed the able editor of the Pruntytown Plain- dealer. “He walked into the sanctum, here, took off his hat and remarked that he presumed it required a gregt deal of ability to edit a successful newspaper, and that he himself knew nothing about running one. We discovered a_ little later that he had escaped from the officer who was taking him to the asylum, but we will own up that his visit refreshed us greatly.” -Tom P. Morgan. Qualified Worship RTILLA’S eyes are blue and bright, And mischief in them lies. Her wavy hair is crisp and light; But not so are her pies. She a picture day by day That fairly turns my head, She also—this I grieve to say— Makes ferro-concrete bread. Her spirit from dull care is free, Resilient is her youth. Her steaks quite often prove to be Resilient, too, forsooth. Myrtilla’s culinary crimes Will not cut short my life. I'm not her victim many times; For she’s my brother's wife. Edmund Moberly. Was This Your Aunt or Your Uncle? Son—Pa, what is an enlarged family portrait like Dad—Like almost anything but the subject of it. comicbooks.com