Judge, 1917-09-15 · page 7 of 28
Judge — September 15, 1917 — page 7: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page satirizes two distinct targets: **"Miss Van Astor" (top cartoon):** References a wealthy socialite performing visible "war work" for newspaper publicity—likely during WWI. The satire mocks upper-class women who perform labor ostentatiously for public relations while actual war efforts continue. "Doing Her Bit" was contemporary slang for contributing to the war effort. **"The Wildcat" (main essay):** A humorous double-meaning piece playing on "wildcat" as both an animal *and* a financial term. The essay pretends to defend the animal's reputation, which has been tarnished by association with risky "wildcat stocks" and "wildcat oil" schemes—fraudulent investments common in early 20th-century finance. The WWI reference suggests using wildcats as weapons—absurdist humor suggesting desperate solutions to the war. **The apartment cartoon (bottom):** A landlord-tenant joke about noisy children; the tenant claims music lessons keep them occupied and quiet—likely satirizing either the expense of such lessons or their ineffectiveness as discipline. The page combines topical war-era satire with financial commentary and domestic humor typical of *Judge* magazine's style.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
THE WILDCAT HE wildcat is an animal that suffers from neglect of educa- tion along the lines of etiquette. Home training might have done much for the wildcat, but the rattle of the bar across the door, instead of the gentle swishing of the externally-hung latchstring has always been the houscholder’s greeting to this misunderstood animal. Also the free application of the word “wildcat” to various forms of investment, such shares, etc., has tended to m the wildcat a bit resentful. No self-respecting wildcat likes to see its family name bandied about in such fashion on the financial pages of the newspap . The fi of a tree overhanging some mounta gently upon the shoulders of a passing cowboy or pros- pector. This is usually followed by a fight’ which results in the displacing of boulders, uprooting of trees, and the general rearrangement of scenery in the immediate vicinity. There is no dog that will persistently hunt for wildcats. Any hunting that is done on the part of the dog is quite by accident. The error is never repeated. Western people do not raise their windows at night and throw shoes or orite sport of the wildcat is to perch on the limb in trail and then leap Miss Van Astor who believes in “Doing Her Bit oil stocks, mining other missiles at wildcats on their back fences. In fact they would rather lose an hour or two of sleep at night than to cause any annoyance to so handsome a visitor. The wildcat’s skin is sought by man, and consequently the Ss " (for the newspapers, etc.) wildcat cannot be blamed if he secks the skin of man. Only, however, the animal is more skinned against than skinning. he West has but one answer to the world-wide query: “How shall the allies win the war?” That answer is: “Raise wildcats in the trenches and sick ’em on the enemy.” —Arthur Chapman. (escesers Budslchreoe — Apartment ogent—Are these your children? _ % . Prospective tenant—Yes; but they are not a bit noisy. Their music lessons take up all their time.