Judge, 1918-01-05 · page 9 of 28
Judge — January 5, 1918 — page 9: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This satirical article critiques urban dwellers' poor self-care habits and tendency to blame external factors rather than themselves. A physician reportedly claimed nothing is inherently wrong with city stomachs—the problem is how people treat them. The satire targets wealthy city men who overindulge in rich foods (lobster Newburgh, filet mignon, champagne) without exercise, then blame their digestive systems when hungover. Moulton argues these men meticulously maintain their automobiles but neglect their own bodies, running themselves "around until he squeaks in every joint" before seeking help. The illustration titled "Tenting on the Old Camp Ground" (a Civil War song reference, unclear in context here) appears to show revelers or campers, likely reinforcing themes of indulgence and poor judgment. The piece is characteristic of Judge's moralizing satire about modern urban excess and personal responsibility.
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Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
NOTED Ameri- A can physician has come to bat with the astounding statement that there is nothing the matter with the city man’s stomach. If there is any blame to be conferred, it should be placed upon the man himself and not upon his stomach. The aver- age city man’s stomach is his best friend and to get along without one is annoying, if not quite exasperating. is is startling, but at the same time, reas- suring. The theory of this scientist is that the average stomach will lead a blameless life if only it is treated with respect and a reason- able amount of consid- eration. This idea is new if not revolutionary. It has ever been a pet theory with us folk who live in the urban centers that, if anything goes wrong with our department of the interior, it is the fault of the department and not of ourselves. We have had the happy faculty of passing the blame lightly along in- stead of tracing respon- sibility to its source as this doctor seems to have done. He has the audacity to declare that many a man fills up on lobster Newburgh, Japanese crabmeat, filet mignon, French fried potatoes, salad with — Russian dressing, pickled arti- chokes, mince pie and champagne and _ then, when he gets up in the morning feeling like the fag end of a misspent life, with his head re- volving like the little i roulette ball and his tongue the size of a shredded wheat biscuit, ys the blame where sn’t belong. He does not blame himself, but lets out a loud yelp URBAN STOMACH —!?’s All Right By ROY K. MOULTON ae anny i : Daw Homsan + 0-Z, TENTING ON THE OLD CAMP GROUND to the effect that nature has slipped him a punk digestive apparatus. The city dweller, who takes no exercise worthy of the name and then acquires what Mr. Edi- son calls a “food jag” always believes his in- ternal mechanism was second-hand or rebuilt from an old model. He has yet to learn that a stomach is only a stom- ach and is not a 5,000 horse-power battleship or a concrete mixer. The average city man, according to the learned doc, will take better care of his automobile than of his constitution. If there is a slight knock in the engine of his car, he will drive immedi- ately to the garage and have the engine torn down at an expense of $300 and a number of new parts installed. But, so far as his own personal engine is con- cerned, he will run around until he squeaks in every joint, until his carburetor is out of tune, until his rear axle bangs against the pave- ment and until he is hitting on only one cylinder out of twelve before he will take himself to task and find out what is the matter. This is a new theory quite worthy of investi- gation. It is alleged that a man cannot load upon fried tripe and ice cream or nut sundaes night after night just before going to bed and then dodge _responsi- bility by laying all the blame on a poor stom- ach. Of course it can’t be done, but a lot of city guys will keep right on doing it, just the same. Trying to do the im- possible things is about all the excitement there is in city life, anyhow.