Judge, 1917-08-04 · page 14 of 28
Judge — August 4, 1917 — page 14: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
The top cartoon satirizes WWI draft exemption claims. A man claims "short sightedness" to avoid military service, but the examiner replies that those with poor vision will simply be placed in "advanced trenches"—the most dangerous frontline positions. The joke exposes the absurdity of using physical disabilities as exemption grounds when they'd be sent to the worst combat zones anyway. The page also contains humorous essays and poems about everyday life frustrations: a farm worker's wage raise immediately negated by increased board costs; cynical observations about human nature; and commentary on Congressional debate (likely about aviation policy during the WWI era). The overall tone critiques both military bureaucracy and the economic struggles of ordinary Americans during wartime.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
“On what grounds do you claim exemption?” “Short sightedness” WHEL. em tiSED “That's all right. They will put you up in the advanced trenches.” FROM A SINNER'S DIARY HURTS—the dynamite of life. What a wonderment ’twould be, if from putting things on, like being polite, and that, we’d grow into being the real thing. But we don’t seem to. To save work; skip it. Part of us have to be undone and part of us done up. Which'd you rather? Times are hard and taters high. But have you known any picture shows to close? All right, if you would, do. I know a man like the letter b. He turns joy into job. To get rich: be loved but don’t love. . Promises, I find, whether pitched, batted orcaught, are mostly umpired “out.” If onions tasted like they do, and smelled like they don’t! The stitch is the needle’s track. I believe I'd rather die too soon than too late. be mourned in tront than behind. Made nutcakes today. They swelled up like the plans of some folks I know do in the winter and flatted like ambition does in the spring. Pioneers make me think of coral insects. I know a lame man who can let loose more jobs than four- teen able-bodied persons can overtake. I want a hired girl. A woman who dare sass me, but whose lip I don’t have to take. —Lynette Freemire. I'd rather NATURE SONNET (By the Village Poet) Tovar T asked pa if he didn’t think I ought to get more wages than I got, That farmers round were paying quite a lot More than they did, and I was short of chink, Besides my clothes were getting on the blink. Pa said he'd think it over, and next day He pulled a long, drawn face, his usu'l way, And said: “I like your business sense, by jink!"” “T'll raise you fifty cents a week,” says he, And then my chest began to swell with pride, And I was just as happy as could be, And had that fifty spent, and lots beside. Then pa says, sheepish, soon as he could speak: “But board has gone up fifty cents a week.” —Joe Cone. Drawing the Line “I may be a wise guy,” yawned Earle E. Wurme, “and then again I may not be. Frankly, between you and me, I don’t know any more than the law allows; I’m just the same as every one else. But there are times when my chest puffs out; times when friends seem to think I’m a fund of knowledge; when they say to me, ‘Well, how’s everything?” If Uncle Sam ever does take over the domain of the air, he'll find it still hot from use in the debate in Congress. comicbooks.com