Judge, 1919-04-05 · page 11 of 32
Judge — April 5, 1919 — page 11: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# "Hands and What to Do With Them" — Judge Magazine Satire This humorous article by Harry Irving Shumway satirizes social etiquette and awkwardness of the era by offering absurd, exaggerated advice on hand placement in various formal settings. The joke targets the genuine anxiety men faced about proper deportment in public situations—where to put one's hands was genuinely discussed in etiquette guides. The cartoons illustrate ridiculous solutions: sitting on hands at dinner, contorting arms at concerts, holding manuscripts like purses when meeting editors, and hiding hands in wedding photos. The final comic strip "Circumstantial Evidence" depicts a soldier applying for early discharge, claiming psychological research at Tubbs University—the humor lying in the obvious fabrication and the absurdity of the excuse. The closing dialogue about anesthesia appears to be a separate, unrelated joke about a doctor's visit. Overall, the page mocks both male social self-consciousness and flimsy military excuses common to the WWI era.
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Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Hands and What to Do With Them By Haray Lavine Suusway OU must take them with you. here are very few effective places to put them. They cannot be aimed at objects, and there are countless things that hands must not do. If you put gloves on them they look 50% bigger and 75% clumsier. In the interests of every-day art then, what shall we do with them? At a Dinner A good way to hide the hands between courses is to sit on them and rock back and forth in your chair. This will give you a sort of happy-go-lucky appearance and ef- fectually keep people’s eyes from looking at your hands. Ar a Music Spree If the chair you are sitting in has arms, it’s a cinch. Just place your left elbow on the arm of the chair and connect your left forefinger with a point one inch from your left eye. The right arm should be draped over the other arm of the chair, the hand gracefully pendant. Wuen Tarkinc to Epitor Hold your manuscript in your left hand if it is a small one; a large manuscript should be folded into a shawl strap and carried in the left hand like a reticule. Your right thumb should be hooked into the lower vest pocket, leaving four fingers to dangle in as literary a manner as can be assumed. AN Drawn by Lawne Officer —W. what is it? Smith y Wuen Atisunc to Wire at 2 a.m. The left hand should be advanced, palm out, about on a level with your jaw. The right should be held Drawn by A.B, Waren CixcumstantiaL Evipence sir, Psychol h, you've applied for early discharge on account of essential industry — Miner cal Research at Tubbs University, sir. Cor- fairly close to the body in the region of the heart. bett, Willard, and many others say there is no guard like this one. Wuen Havinc Your Picture Taken Do the same as at a dinner—sit on ’em. If you leave them out anywhere in the air, the photographer will make them look like hams. If it is a wedding pic- ture and you are having a group of your wife and self done to insult-the parlor wall in the days to come, don’t drape one of your hands on the bride’s shoulder. Hide it in the orange blossoms on the top of her head. Wuen Catuinc on a Best Girt Hide the box of chocolates in both hands behind your back. Then twiddle about on both toes and say “Which hand do you choose?” She is looking for both, to keep, but will name a preference, which of course will not be the correct one, and you can both laugh and have a terribly silly time. There Already Mrs. Willis—What is this stuff that you are going to give my husband? The Doctor anything. Mrs, Willis—Come, doctor, he doesn’t need that at all. Anesthetic. After he takes it he won't know comicbooks.com