Judge, 1917-09-08 · page 11 of 28
Judge — September 8, 1917 — page 11: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This Judge magazine page satirizes WWI-era patriotism and domestic sacrifice. The main narrative mocks a nagging wife who berates her husband for insufficient patriotic "doing his bit," despite his substantial war fund donations. She advocates sacrifice through deprivation—eating rice and macaroni instead of potatoes, making cakes without eggs or butter—while dismissing his reasonable objections. The satire targets how civilians (particularly women) weaponized moral superiority around wartime rationing and sacrifice, turning personal hardship into performative patriotism. The "Ominous News" cartoon depicts government fat rationing/commandeering, visualizing wartime scarcity and government control over civilian resources. Together, these pieces critique both the performative nature of home-front "sacrifice" and the real privations WWI imposed on ordinary Americans through rationing and resource requisitioning.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Lonesome bridge guard—An' here I've been w: freak I only wish you would be one yourself! How a man with American blood in his veins can be so indifferent when his csuntry is calling for him to stand by her in the hour of peril is beyond me and—what is that? You have given one hundred dollars to a war fund and have pledged another hundred? Mercy on us! Isn’t that a good deal for a man in your circumstances to try to do? And the house needing painting and a lot of repairing. I believe in each of us doing our ‘bit’ and in—well, you always would spend your money without con- sulting me and I suppose you always will. Anyhow, it is for a good object and I hope you will get credit for it. Was it Wendell Phillips or Ella Wheeler Wilcox who said, ‘Let our object be the country, every single bit of the country and nothing less?’ I don’t know that I quoted it just right, but that is the gist of it. The idea is that nothing should stand between us and our native land. Our speaker quoted it today, but Mrs. Markson was giving me a new recipe for cooking rice and macaroni at the time and I am not sure that I got it right. We can do our ‘bit,’ James, by eating more rice and macaroni instead of paying a dollar a peck for potatoes, and I have learned of a way to make a nice cake without eggs or butter and you use molasses instead of sugar and—you don’t want any of that cake? Oh, the selfishness of men when it comes to anything affecting their stomachs! Very well, the children and I will eat it and do our ‘bit’ right before you! My children shall show a little patriotism even if their own father will not!” Since the advent of the movies, there has been a de- cided decrease in the quotations on bald heads. anting to go to some quiet place every summer! A Hermit's Larder The individual who sincerely courts solitude should lay in a stock of apples and onions. ‘An apple a day keeps the doctor away,” while even a half a raw onion a day will guarantee the absence of the rest of the folks. Take a Slant! A glance at the price of pork on the hoof will cure anybody of the habit of listing hogs among the lower animals. ALL FATS To BE COMMANDEERED BY THE GOVERNMENT! —coROus To START viGoROU CAMPAL O coN ww PRESSURE nEANY PRO OMINOUS NEWS