Judge, 1919-03-08 · page 9 of 32
Judge — March 8, 1919 — page 9: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# "Musings on the Bath Mat" Analysis This page from Judge magazine features a cartoon and accompanying satirical essay by Dox Herold. The cartoon depicts a domestic scene where a woman in a belted dress enthusiastically asks a military officer to recount "the battle of the Marne again" because "Fido gets so excited"—the dog being the implied audience member of actual interest. The satire mocks how WWI's Battle of the Marne (1914) had become trivialized entertainment fodder, reduced to a parlor anecdote for amusing pets rather than serious historical discourse. The caption suggests the absurdity of treating major military events as casual drawing-room entertainment. The essay below offers miscellaneous social commentary typical of Judge's wit: observations on gender, marriage, art, labor, and modern life. References to "Pathé Weekly" (newsreels), "Bernard Shaw," and "Moving picture horses" ground it in early 20th-century cultural touchstones. The humor derives from deflating pretensions and exposing human contradictions common to satirical magazines of this era.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Draws by Sons Worn, dn ‘O%, Captain, please tell about the battle of the Marne again, Fido gets so excited!” Musings on the Bath Mat By Dox Heroun I' is vulgar to be any nicer any time than you are any time Women have a wonderful sense of right and wrong, but little sense of right and left. If it were not for Pathé Weekly, King George of England would not have much to do. Art is a land where all are free to go barefoot, and the way is sprinkled with thumb-tacks. She was sweet and simple. He married her because she was sweet. He divorced her because she was simple. It is a whole lot easier to be a Bernard Shaw to the British or American public than it is to be a Bernard Shaw to your own family. . . . Interruptions are the spice of life. Work is a form of nervousness. Landlords give us our chandeliers, but thank God we can choose our parlor lamps. Nobody ought to sing for less than $1,000 a week Moving picture horses are ten years ahead of their profession fe so well she never finds out anything A woman takes to about it 1 wonder what God thinks of a man (created in His own image) putting on his pants in a lower berth . « «© We will, hereafter, believe less history than ever, now the we have seen how it is made. . . . It takes a lot of time to be sentimental o 8 6 Be good, even at the cost of your self-respect + ere Conversation is the slowest form of human communication. aieimatidabs Ocs2 aac oe at, nlih Seria eY Cyee mee, comicbooks.com