Judge, 1918-12-07 · page 31 of 32
Judge — December 7, 1918 — page 31: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page is primarily **advertising**, not political satire. It's a December 7, 1918 advertisement for "Every American's Reference Library"—a 16-volume encyclopedia set. The satirical framing uses the **recent WWI armistice** (November 1918) as context. The headline "The Great Lesson of the War" claims the conflict proved the triumph of "spiritual ideal" over "brute force." This patriotic opening then pivots to selling reference books by arguing that ignorance is a handicap—Americans need knowledge to participate intelligently in civic life (discussing French place names, pronunciations, etc.). The implicit satire: America's "lesson" from winning the war should be self-improvement through education. The ads mock "conscious ignorance" (embarrassing yourself discussing French cities) and promise that owning this encyclopedia set at only $1.00 monthly removes such social embarrassment. It's essentially leveraging postwar American optimism and civic pride to market educational products—practical advertising dressed in patriotic language.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
AIN lvecember 7, 1918 THE GREAT LESSON OF THE WAR The world has just witnessed the most inspiring event in its his anized brute force the overwhelming triumph of a great itual ideal ra crafty plotting and of cunning intrigu materialistic leaders on the one hand, b amous 16-inch Shelf of c Books weighs only 16 Pounds, including the Bookcase. With American's conveniently at Takes away all thought of drudgery in conne with the pursuit of know edge. When fact-findin your elbow or office made so easy, “looki more searchin up” in the Encyclope sty corners of the library or in the Dictionary, be- shelves for some po: tome when you want to satisfy yourself about a fact comes a pleasure instead of a bore. Have You a Limited IGNORANCE—GREATEST ee Coe ra, to insure your receiving the Oak Bookease (sur Education? OF ALL HANDICAPS plied in natural finish only) together wit ’ Esery American's Reference L places you on Conscious Ignorance Makes a Man EVERY AMERICAN'S ENCYCLOPEDIA ‘ t Ill at Ease; Unconscious Igno- 9 Volumes Bound i 1 Library Weave, Extra rance Makes Him Ridiculous e ur command all th r at th ' bout everyt When discussing the war with people of iS edu n, do you suffer embarrassment when it comes to the pronunciation of ling. finished , the names of French cities like Soissons ; Round Corr Ateau-Thierry, Amiens? Every Ame av ican’s Reference Library will put you at 31 00 ; NOW as ease in thet :stof company, no matter what . bbc the subject under discussion, because it epay gives you the pronuncia tion of all proper and ion names, and tell you just the things every con BRUNSWICK SUBSCRIPTION CO. 116 Brunswick Bldg., New York City E 1 find $1.00 American nth for 2 nur expense GIVEN TO PROMPT _ SUBSCRIBERS ubs comicbooks. com