Judge, 1919-04-12 · page 5 of 36
Judge — April 12, 1919 — page 5: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# "The Nicked Switch-Plug" by George Gilbert This story satirizes early 20th-century attitudes about women's appearance and marriage. The illustration shows men (including one identified as "Arline Wilton Men") admiring a woman, with the caption asking if she won't "be fat later on?" The narrative mocks Walter Brumleigh's fixation on marrying only thin women, while paradoxically fearing weight gain in his future wife. The "switch-plug" invention—a device to disable a car's motor—represents a humorous "solution" to control and monitor women's behavior. The story satirizes masculine anxieties about female autonomy and appearance, presenting marriage as a system of control. The satire targets both male insecurity and the era's shallow standards for women's worth, though it reflects rather than critiques these prejudices.
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Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Or Aruine Witton Men Sato, Wuen No Women Were Present, “Isn’t Sue Beautirun? But Wop ‘tT Sue Be Fat Later On? The Nicked Switch-Plug By Georce GILBERT Illustration by 7T was Walter Brumleigh’s fixed idea not to wed a fat one. Yet the nicely rounded, devilishly deli- cious ones excited him to peevishness with his ide r. Did he see a splendidly curved, entic- ingly well-budded one, he would muse: “Yes; she is beautiful, now. But what of her at thirty? Will she eschew sweets, starches, keep trim? No. She will pig up on carbo-hydrates, burgeon, fatten. Better a thin one; one I can feed to plumpness, if I de- sire. You can do that, but never pare down a fat one. And yet thin ones did not intrigue him—much He saw some he deemed beautiful, but not in a way he thought he could love—the way he feared in the case of the others. Pending the time he should find a thinned or thin deity to worship, he was content to admire, to flirt with, the awesomely attractive to-be- fats With his resolutions on straight, he deemed it not dangerous to ask Arline Wilton to motor with him, after her aunt had introduced them at the West Park Club at an informal spring dance. Of Arline Wilton men said, when no women were present: “Isn't she beautiful?” adding, sotto voce: “but won't she be fat later on?” Miss Wilton had a skin soft and inviting, a form trembling beyond perfection’s verge of curvilinearity, hair of coaxing color-values, eyes that could allure Plump such a girl into a dress of pink and yellow, have a large moon soaring overhead, and she riding beside Earte B. Winstow a man who is afraid he will marry her and you have— possibilities. But her conversation steadied him, for it ran to motors, cf which Brumleigh was a collector. Her father had one like Brumleigh’s latest, she said. So when they stopped 2* a road teahouse for a sip and a bite, Arline was interested when Brumleigh plucked somethirg from a tiny hole near the speedometer and pocketed it. “What new wrinkle have you on your car?” she coaxed, bending forward until one warm tress touched Brumleigh’s cheek, which he was striving to keep cool to offset his heart that was a bit too warm. Brumleigh showed her a neat little switch-plug that he had devised, he being given to work with tools, as a recreation. The switch-plug would render dead when taken away, the ignition system of his motor. He took the plug with him when leaving his motor at the roadside or in a strange garage, that no evilly-disposed person might steal the car. Brumleigh felt safe, as on the way to the table and out, he descanted upon his invention. Conversing on such cool things as brass, steel, files, vises, he felt secure in drinking in her beauty through his eyes the while. “Make such a switch-plug for me, to give to my dad?” she asked. His heart consented; his brain rebelled. She laid a delicate hand on his wrist. He nodded consent. “Anyway, I'll never marry a girl who will be fat comicbooks.com