Judge, 1917-12-29 · page 16 of 29
Judge — December 29, 1917 — page 16: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
The top illustration satirizes **New York City's lack of outdoor café culture** compared to Paris. A well-dressed couple and fashionable pedestrians are depicted in what appears to a public space, with the caption suggesting New Yorkers have nowhere to sit outdoors leisurely—a social complaint about American urban life versus European sophistication. The "Meditations" essay reflects on **apartment living during illness**, capturing the sounds and rhythms of urban working-class domesticity: weary breadwinners returning home with resignation, contrasted with one joyful young couple, illustrating varying attitudes toward marriage and work. The smaller jokes at bottom are typical Judge humor: a pun about "tea" vs. the letter "U"; a play on "Violet Ray" (X-ray technology); criticism of a woman eating too many berries; and a dig at female vanity about aging. Overall, the page reflects early-20th-century middle-class concerns: urban isolation, the monotony of wage labor, marriage dynamics, and gender stereotypes.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Bertie MEDITATIONS EL AVE YOU EVER been ill all day in bed, in a room on the front court of an apartment house? Maybe it would seem that being ill was much the same anywhere—and perhaps it is when one is too ill to notice things. But to be ill enough to do absolutely nothing and yet notice everything—that’s when a room such as I have described makes a difference. All day long the sounds had been few and monotonous; the calls of men from the streets, the occasional shrill, happy cry of a child going by on roller skates; the various bells of tele- phones and front doors. But at nightfall all was different. Husbands were return- ing, the men were coming from business. Lights were burning ine y kitchen. Vegetables were spouting and murmuring in the kettles, but I cared only to lie still. Then came the sound of footsteps. Some of the bread-winners were returning not be- cause they felt any joy in the home-coming but because it was the natural end of the day. The thought of staying down-town to dinner “with some of the boys” had faded before the arduous task of explanation, Laboriously and with bored, heavy tread such steps sounded through the court And then amid the lazy, dutiful footsteps came a buoyant, It was that of the young husband in the apartment next door. There was the hurried sound of a key in a lock, then a woman's soft, happy greeting inside. Every footstep told a monotony. of joyous step. It’s a pity New York hasn't cafés like Paris. There's positively nowhere one can sit outdoors and have a bite and take a little rest. “Are you fond of tea, Mr. Jones? “Yes, but I like the next letter the best!” story. Many spoke feelingly of drab lives in tiny rooms, but others told a sprightly, happy tale. All were as truly cloquent as voices for they portrayed accurately the owner's thoughts on life—discouraged, dull, lifeless; or joyous, light and aspiring. —Muary Graham Bonner. Admonishing Him “Loogy yuh, Brudder Flapp!” severely said good old Parson Bagster, in the course of the Wednesday night prayer meeting. “When yo'-all suppercates to de Lawd kain’t yo’ denounce yo" words a little mo’ cl’arly? Remember dat the Scripter tells us to pray widout sissing.” Her Name “Brown, the X-Ray inventor, was just presented by his wife with a baby girl.” “Yes? What are they going to name het “Violet Ray. A Timely Warning Mrs. Mean of berries? Peddler—Ther won't be enny mum, if you kape on atein’ thim! This is not a full box at all, Womanlike Boggs—She looks older than twenty- seven. Maud—Yes, but change her looks a her age. ou sce she can’t asily as she can comicbooks:com