Judge, 1919-04-26 · page 13 of 32
Judge — April 26, 1919 — page 13: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# "At the Petunia Hostelry" - A Satirical Look at Small-Town Life This page satirizes small-town American social dynamics, particularly around "Old Home Week" celebrations (a real early-1900s phenomenon where former residents returned to their hometowns). The main story mocks how nostalgic homecomings reveal petty truths: returning visitors prove they haven't done better elsewhere, old debts resurface, and the town revives forgotten grudges. The landlord ironically calls it a "successful function." The follow-up cartoon shows a demanding young traveling salesman (typical of the era) insisting on precise 6:30 AM service—a joke about urban pretension meeting rural practicality. The innkeeper humorously suggests the man must be an "osteopath" (implying he's overly fussy about details). The page also includes lighter jokes about marital "perfection" and wordplay poems ("Reversibles") playing on double meanings of words like "check" and "pipe." Overall: satirical critique of small-town gossip, nostalgia, and class differences between provincial and urban America.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
At the Petunia Hostelry Ry ‘Tow P. Moxcay “ OW did your Old Home Week turn out?” aske a guest * triumphantly replied “Finer than frog hair ‘Tavern. the landlord of the Petunia “Quite a lot of people that went away years ayo came back, and we 1 considerable of the debts they owed when they hen, some of us gents, whose wives ha 01 sions for years been telling us in a chasten ned sort of way that they might have mar- and-So, and sighed somewhat when they said amples to prove collec left. certain edly re it, were able to p’int out to them that they wouldn’t have done so mighty much better Also, as is customary in a small town, we here at home had quarreled with our feller citizens till it had got to be such an old story that there wasn’t any fun in it, but the visitors gave us quite a good deal of fresh material to quarrel with. All told, our Old Home Week was exceedingly successful function.” And the Next Day This Happened Londlord.” briskly demanded a self-important voung lesman, “can you call me at siv-thirty, sharp, in the moming?—not five o'clock or seven, you understand, but exactly at sithirty! Lf want a call on the minute, not excuse an hour or two before or after.” *Jesso, Mr. Snort! Well, now—er-h’m!—lez see!” replied mine host of the Petunia Tavern, consulting his call sheet. "1 Tea SSS Rs don’t use tools. jood Heavy “ Certainly, You must belong to some new schee ‘an osteopath.” of plumbing.” er sees your face. Y was afraid for a minute that all the calls for that hour were taken up. but T find I have one left yet. Eh-vah!—I'll call you tat the app'inted time, and you'll ‘getup, too, ever if | have to drag you out by the hair of the head Perfection Milly—1 suppose your idea of a perfect. woman is one who has no faults. Billy-No, merely one who acknowledges them. As It Were “They say London is foggy.” “Sul, they give you a hearty greeting.” “Welcome to our mist, so to speak.” Reversibles By Avoison F. Axprews A PLUMBER started out to plumb With his apprentice gay; And while the former laid a pipe The latter piped a lay. I took a train for New York town From old Vermont, by heck; And when I went to check my bag Some rascal bagged my check. When men are blue and out-of-sorts, They're apt to sulk and frown And try to keep their spirits up Ry putting spirits down. The wild, ferocious lunatic Can only rave and curse, And while they try to nurse his brain He tries to brain his nurse. ene — - —— os