Judge, 1919-06-07 · page 9 of 36
Judge — June 7, 1919 — page 9: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Analysis for Modern Readers This page contains two satirical pieces from *Judge* magazine: **"His Circular Excursion"** (top): A humorous story about Mort Sawney, a poor Arkansas farmer who suddenly becomes wealthy when a railroad pays him for right-of-way. Too timid to travel properly, he instead rents a merry-go-round horse and rides it continuously for three days, sleeping aboard, calling it his "world tour." The satire mocks both rural unsophistication and the nouveau riche's ostentatious leisure pursuits—poking fun at how the newly wealthy often make foolish spending choices. **"The One Touch of Nature"** (bottom): A brief theatrical joke where a lady customer wants to buy a bed, but the salesman says theatrical managers have rented them all for war plays. The satire suggests war dramas are so prevalent and popular that they've depleted the furniture market—critiquing both wartime theatrical exploitation and the public's appetite for military entertainment. Both pieces reflect early-20th-century American humor about class mobility, rural characters, and commercial entertainment trends.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
His Circular Excursion By ‘Tos. P. Morcas “QVOME gents take the talons that the Lord gave “em and display ‘em in one way and some in another,” philosophically admitted Gap Johnson, of Rumpus Ridge, Ark. “A good many fellers, when they suddenly become rich, buy running horses, restaurants, shooting galleries picture shows, or marry grass-widder ladies, or go razooing off to the city to live a life of sloth forever after, or cut some similar caper. But it wasn’t that-a- way with Mort Sawney. “The railroad went through his place, and paid him more money for the right of way and depot site than he ever before knowed existed. He had always wanted to travel and see the world, but he was afeared that he know how to behave whur he wasn’t ac- quainted, and sorter juberous about finding his way back when he got ready to quit gaddi So he went i and bought himself a new pair of wouldn’t t, and then looked around. round in town, and when was a merr. veld it he heaved and hired that there vehicle four o'clock Saturday afternoor sigh of relief. He just up all its perquizzits tll nd then clumb on Drawn by Pe Mis Wire Tr way I've enjoyed the a bird, all right. About $175—fro: week here immensely > 0 and rid her three days and nights without pause, sleeping on board the utensil, hav his meals brung to him, sailing placidly round and round, and listening to the organ pouring forth ‘Queenie Was There with Her Hair in a Braid,’ ‘Climbing Up the Golden Stairs,’ and similar soothing hymn tunes. “And when it was all over he went winding home, plumb content with his journey He said the world, as far as he'd seen it, looked a good deal alike, and, taking it up one side and down the other, he reckoned the face of Nature yur on Rumpus Ridge was fully as entertaining as it was anywhurs else.” The One Touch of Nature Seemingly every angle of the war has been utilized by play wrights and theatrical producers, yet a returned soldier states that every war play he has seen lacks an important feature of The stage soldiers don’t scratch. verisimilitude Our Bedlam Stage Furniture store. I want to buy a bed. Salesman—1 am very sorry, ma n, but theatrical man ners have contracted years ahead for all we can get. Seene y Customer Wi r, but wasn’t the bill a trifle large