Judge, 1918-06-22 · page 13 of 36
Judge — June 22, 1918 — page 13: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a romantic wartime story (not satire) set during World War I, illustrated by Lawrence Fellows. The narrative concerns Corporal John Strong, an American soldier in a motor-cycle squad, who has met and fallen for Julie, a French girl whose family was devastated during the German retreat. The illustration shows Strong on his motorcycle with two other soldiers in rain, establishing the military setting. The story depicts their brief romance interrupted by Strong's orders to move to the front lines. The text emphasizes the "occult, magnetic current" between them despite language barriers, and Julie's meaningful farewell ("Eh bien! Au revoir!"). The narrative then follows Strong as he engages in actual combat during the Allied advance, carrying orders on his motorcycle through dangerous conditions. This appears to be the opening of a longer story celebrating American soldiers' contributions to the war effort and romantic sacrifice.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
“Ts Tuere any Messace to Take Back?’ He Askep” An Incidental Exploit By J. A. Watpron Illustration by Lawrence FELLows. UI, m’sieu! Oui!” And this was Julie’s repeated response, with an English word or two charmingly broken, to everything John Strong sought to say in phrases which alone would have been as confusing as her own. He was trying to tell her that he was leaving the billet the next day to get nearer the fighting front. - Strong, a corporal in a motor-cycle squad, had seen this pretty French girl half a dozen times already. There was something about her that he liked amazingly. There must have been something about him that she liked as well. In spite of their verbal difficulties, that occult, magnetic current that flows between the young of opposite sex was in force. And even pantomime in such cases is effective. They were sitting together on the still green trunk of a great tree near a half-destroyed cottage. In some mysterious way the girl alone of her family had escaped when the ravaging horde of Huns had swept the district savagely in their retreat, ruining and maim- ing natural objects as well as the helpless human beings in their path. And back over the same barren territory the barbarians had already started to sweep again. The great drive was on, although still distant. To one unused to the rumbling of heavy artillery in the distance it would have seemed that a thunderstorm was brewing. But the sky was clear, and birds were singing. Julie understood before Strong left her that he was to engage in actual fighting with the other Americans who had done so much to alleviate the miseries of the neighborhood. There was a volume of meaning in her “Eh bien! Au revoir!” as he left_her. The American command to which Strong was at- tached moved northeast to be aligned with the defend- ers. Terrible days and nights followed, for there was no cessation of the Hun advance and the Allied retreat. Each morning found new complications and new dan- gers. Strong had been busy carrying orders here and there, for the wire lines had been destroyed by the hail of shells. One morning, after he had been on his machine most of the night, he was the third cyclist to be sent on a sin- gle mission, carrying orders to a command miles away, a point at the moment remote from the scene of con- comicbooks.com