Judge, 1919-07-05 · page 5 of 36
Judge — July 5, 1919 — page 5: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Analysis This is a humorous domestic article by Don Herold titled "What Is There About a Baby That Calls for Ducks?" The joke concerns a new baby gift from relatives—a mug and nursery items decorated with ducks—that has become an obsession. The author humorously describes how duck imagery has proliferated throughout the nursery: on wallpaper, scales, memory books, and bath toys. He's now paranoid that his baby is becoming duck-obsessed, even imagining the infant has duck-like features. The cartoon illustration shows a man at his desk, apparently distressed, with the caption "Perhaps I Have Smoked Too Much—I See Ducks!" reinforcing the absurdist premise. The satire gently mocks new-parent anxiety and the tendency of well-meaning relatives to shower babies with themed gift sets, creating unintended comedic excess.
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Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Drawn by W. K. Stannert + ALC. * “Have you quit painting for the day?” “No, I’m waiting for that cow to take the same pose again.” What Is There About a Baby That Calls for Ducks? By Dow Heroip UNT ALICE sent our litle baby‘ daughter a bib with the most cunning little duck em- broidered down in the lower left-hand corner. It was in perfect harmony with the little mug that Cousin Cora sent, with the word “Baby’’ and a duck on it. And, as luck would have it, there was a duck on the tiny nursery table that Grand- ma Greene had sent baby. The three pieces made a set, as it were. It happens also that the nursery paper we selected after the baby was born has a frieze of ducks around the top, and a couple of wecks ago I discovered a duck on the end of the Kiddie Kage that Uncle Fred gave us. I noticed re- cently, furthermore, that there is a row of ducks around the top of the can of stearate of zinc which we keep on baby’s shelf. And there is a blue duck on the corner of the shawl that Aunt Nancy Conwell made. And of course there are ducks on ‘the baby scales, and on the back of “Baby’s Memory Book.” And I must not forget the floating ducks that Aunt Lucile sent for baby’s bath. There must be between eight and nine hundred ducks in our child’s nursery, including those on the wall paper. “ Peruars I Have Smoxep Too Mucu—I See Ducks s It is affecting me. Every once in a while, even down at the office, perhaps when I have smoked too much, I see ducks, and have to brush my hand across my eyes to clear them away. I have thought some of seeing a doctor about myself, or about the ducks, or perhaps— and here is the worst part of all, and I would not have my wife know this, not for the world—or per- haps about the baby. Last night when I looked at the baby asleep in her crib, I thought, just for an instant (per- haps it was just my eye trouble— gosh, I wouldn’t have my wife know this!) that the baby seemed to have changed slightly and that there was just a suggestion, just the faintest suggestion, of a resemblance to a duck in her features. I am trying to shake this idea off, of course. It is a question of just how pow- erful, after all, environment really is. I am going to watch the baby carefully the next few days. If I conclude that it is not my own ner- vous brain, not my own eyes, but the baby that those ding-blamed ducks are working on, I am not go- ing to wait to see a baby doctor; I am going to drive every last duck of the lot out of our nursery and out of our house. I mean to duck the ducks for all time. 1 comicbooks.com