Judge, 1919-12-13 · page 11 of 36
Judge — December 13, 1919 — page 11: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# "As the Twig is Bent" – Satire on Militarized Childhood This page satirizes the commercialization of warfare toys for children. The main article criticizes toy manufacturers for marketing increasingly realistic military weapons—specifically a toy machine gun—to young children at Christmas. The author sarcastically suggests adding toy poison-gas masks and other trench warfare equipment to make children's play more "modern" and militaristic. The satire's point: as actual warfare becomes more mechanized and brutal (the text references machine guns and poison gas, suggesting WWI-era combat), toy manufacturers eagerly mirror these innovations, essentially training children to normalize industrial-scale killing. The "Other Goose Rhymes" cartoon below offers complementary satire, depicting a child ("Little Boy Blue") operating a car, with the law unable to stop him—suggesting the chaotic, lawless nature of modern society. The final anecdote mocks capitalism: two asylum inmates—an oil promoter and lawyer—perpetually swindle each other with worthless schemes, finding purpose in the endless cycle. All three pieces critique unchecked commercialism and militarization in American society.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Draven by Orsox Lownnt. “As the Twig is Bent” By Hanky Hasutrox NE of the playthings on display this Christy will be a toy machine gun. ascinating minia- ture of the real weapon, it is about two and one- half feet high and made chiefly.of wood, for nursery It revolves, and in its magazine is an ample Altogether, an admir- \ purposes. charge of wooden ammunition. able thing. It is pleasing to note that as the art of warfare pro- gresses, the art of toy warfare keeps pace with it. No more is the child to be humiliated on Christmas morning by the presence of a smooth-bore, muzzle-loading wooden cannon which fires, when the spring is snapped, but one shot. The machine gun takes its place ; and further- more, where the old, smooth-bore toy cannon stood only a few inches from the floor, the machine spits its pleasantly murderous hail about on a level with the baby’s eye But, of trench weapons, why should the machine gun alone be represented at juvenile Yuletide? Is there no way of introducing toy poison-gas? Not really poi- sonous, of course; merely some vaporous stuff which, when ignited, will be suffi- ciently unpleasant to convince the kiddies that they are act- ually “playing — soldier”— modern soldier? “Lots of fun for the boys at Christmas,” the maker's announcement might read: Drawn by FRraxk Gow Where's the little be Music From Two To Trree Orner Goose Ruy Mes By Jack Axnorp sd Little Boy Blue come blow your horn Or you'll be arrested as sure as ) wh He's under the chassis venting his spleen Will you arrest him? No, not I, He'll run the car in by and by Sce if you can get your toy-gas-masks on before the coming of the gas attack. Perfectly harmless. Children overcome but a few minutes and then ready to resume the fascinating sport.” Let our offsprings’ Christmas amusements be up-to- date. The boy who “kills” simply by rolling a marble across the floor at his lead soldiers will be certain to grow up a hopeless back-number. This Busy World of Ours HAT about those two professional-looking men over in the corner? Are they inmates?” asked the visitor at the insane asylum. “Yes, and we used to have a great deal of trouble with them. One is an oil stock promotion man who went insane when he was cleaned out. He thinks there is oil under the asylum grounds and he spends his time trying to sell stock to the other, who is a lawyer. They have a million dollars in stage money bet ween them, The oil man induces the lawyer to buy the land and takes all his money in payment, and the lawyer draws up the agreement and contracts and does a vast amount of legal work and sends the oil man a bill equal to all that was paid for the land, and then they argue about it until the lawyer s he'll call the deal off if the oil man doesn’t pay up. So he gets all the money and they start in all over again. It keeps them busy the year round.” mre be owns the machine? comiciooks |