Judge, 1917-08-04 · page 6 of 28
Judge — August 4, 1917 — page 6: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a humorous satirical piece by Arthur Chapman mocking Daylight Saving Time. Colonel Beanfugle proposes the "solution" to daylight saving: simply set all clocks ahead one hour, claiming this saves daylight through psychological effect rather than actual time manipulation. The satire targets the absurdity of DST arguments—Beanfugle's logic that "everybody" feeling an hour earlier starts would somehow conserve daylight is transparently ridiculous. His dismissal of practical concerns (no actual daylight is saved) in favor of vague "psychological effects" lampoons the period's genuine debates over DST's real benefits. The top cartoon shows escalating "surprises" (dollar signs, tools, rifles)—likely Germany's wartime escalations, darkly juxtaposing military threats with domestic time-management debates.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
GERMANY'S LATEST SURPRISE COLONEL BEANFUGLE ON SAVING DAYLIGHT By ARTHUR CHAPMAN 6¢ THINK I shall enroll myself in the Daylight Saving movement,” said Col. Beanfugle, over the top of his newspaper. “It looks like a great and glorious cause.” fell, the men have started enough Night Wasting move- ments—it’s about time they started making up for their own folly,” replied Mrs. Beanfugle. ‘But just how is the daylight going to be saved?” “The simplest thing in the world,” the Colonel answered. ‘All clocks are set ahead just one hour.” “Then what?” “Then nothing. That’s all there is to it.” “But how is any daylight saved by such means?” “Everybody simply goes to work an hour earlier and quits an hour earlier.” “Do you mean to say that just because the clock is set an hour ahead you will get up an hour earlier?” “Certainly. It’s inevitable. The psychological effect of the thing will be felt by everybody alike.” “Psychological nothing! It would take dynamite instead of psychology to get you up an hour earlier in the morning.” “That's just like a woman—always skeptical of anything with a scientific punch to it. This thing has all been reasoned out by the greatest minds in the world. Do you suppose that all these college professors and myself would be agreed upon this thing if it were based upon a wrong hypothesis?” “Anything that any bunch of men gets up is worth looking You can’t convince me that turning the clock ahead going to save any five minutes of daylight. I suppose you will be changing that old nursery poem, too, and making it read hy Se “‘Hickory, dickory, dock, ‘The mouse ran up the clock; The clock struck none instead of one—” “Let us not drag inthe classics,” sneered the Colonel. “Why not be honest, even if you can’t rhyme about it? The Daylight Saving movement will give us a full extra hour in the evening.” “Well, if there’s any one thing you don’t need, it’s an extra hour in the evening. I can’t figure out just why you should have sixty minutes more in which to hunt for lost golf balls, or make a maniac of yourself in the baseball park while dinner is waiting. Even granting that this Daylight Saving movement started you an hour earlier to work, what benefit would come to me and to the rest of the women of the land?” “The same benefits that accrue to the rest of us,” said the Colonel. “You'd have an extra hour in which to play bridge, or run the family automobile, or attend the movies.” “That sounds good, but still I can’t figure out that hour’s earlier start in the morning. Why not make this Daylight Saving an optional one? If A wants to save daylight, let him (Continued on second page following) “What's the trouble, Benny, onions or mamma?” comicbooks.com XUM