Judge, 1919-01-25 · page 9 of 32
Judge — January 25, 1919 — page 9: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# "Trouble Afoot" - Judge Magazine Cartoon This satirical cartoon mocks the exhaustion caused by an apparently omnipresent popular song. A woman, sitting with her feet up, defends her rest to her husband (Emily) by cataloging a day consumed by a tune referred to as "SSB" — likely a contemporary hit song that played constantly in 1910s-20s public spaces. The joke targets how this song infiltrated every aspect of urban life: parades, orchestras, street bands, even a novelty musical chair as a birthday gift. The woman's exasperation—wanting to change the chair to play "Missus in the COG" instead—reflects public frustration with relentless, inescapable popular music in modern city life. The cartoon satirizes both the song's ubiquity and the era's emerging mass-media culture, where a single tune could dominate public consciousness through new technologies and commercial promotion.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Drawn by Onsox Low nu. Trouste Aroor “Good Heavens, Emily! Now don't claim you're only half crazy.” “Why, I'm merely resting my feet. Yesterday I stood from eight to eleven, until the parade started, and then marched nine miles. ‘At lunch the orchestra played the SSB five times and every time they didn't a band paraded by playing it. Then I shopped in the afternoon and strap-hung all the way home in the subway. At dinner the children gave mo my birthday present, a musical chair—yes, the moment you sit on it the blessed thing starts the SSB, but I'm going to have it changed to ‘Missus in the COG.’ comicbooks.com