Judge, 1920-02-28 · page 11 of 36
Judge — February 28, 1920 — page 11: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# "Town Pride" - A Satire on Municipal Improvement This is a humorous article-and-cartoon by Walt Mason, illustrated by Ralph Barton, mocking small-town civic boosterism. The cartoon shows a man kicking a reluctant, overstuffed figure into a wheelbarrow labeled "To the Town Dump." The satire targets the obsessive drive to improve one's town for appearances and pride. Mason's poem ironically advocates building a grand municipal dump as the solution to town improvement—then humorously expands the concept to include disposing of undesirable *people*: the pessimistic "gent who denounces things as vain," the old-fashioned curmudgeon clinging to bygone days, and crucially, "the man who thinks sorrow is in style"—the chronic complainer and "grouch." The joke is that towns waste energy removing garbage and people they deem unpleasant rather than addressing actual problems. It's gentle social commentary on small-town conformity and the arbitrary standards of respectability.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
“To tur Dune Town We'tt Gayty Crase witi au THincs tHar Taint tHe Arr. Pride By Wart Mason Illustration ET us have a lovely town, one of which we all may boast, building up a high renown that will spread from coast to coast. So that people in the trains will exclaim, when looking out, “Here’s the burg where Hustle reigns—here’s the town they brag about!” yw that war is done and past, and the fighters all have quit, let us have a town at last that will truly make a hit. That’s the way we're talking now, here in Pruneville-in-the- Hole, and cach morn we make our vow that the town must reach its goal First we need a public dump, let it cost what ‘twill, in cash; for the town must sadly slump which is cluttered up with trash Having built our dump in style, there we'll,take old cans and hats, haul to it the rubbish pile, and ast season’s cast-off cats. There, as well, we'll take the gent who denounces things as vain ’ which will cost the town a cent, though their merits may be plain, He abides in every town, which is why some towns grow orse, and he greets with savage frown every plan that hits his ¥ purse. He is seated on a stump, whittling all the hours eway; and we'll take him to the dump with a gladsome roundelay. Do not argue, like a chump, that this project is unwise; for a town without a dump cannot hope to win a prize, We must have some sort of place where we'll take tomato cans, and such 4 samples of our race as are proven also rans. And our town, we make our vows, will be good to look upon, Ravew Barton and we'll bear away the cows which lie dead upon the lawn; to the dump we'll gayly chase with all things that taint the air, and we'll make our native place quite the smoothest anywhere To the dump we'll take along that old delegate who’s sure that all modern things are wrong, and that old things should endure. 775 the ancient moldy jay who keeps talking through his fez of a bygone, better day, and he paws around and says: “Inno vations I despise, old time ways will do for me, and our fathers were more wise than we ever hope to be!” Oh, he leans against the pump, and he ballyhoos all day, so we'll take him to the dump, and the village band will play. Oh, a town without a clock may be strictly up to date, ar no traveler would mock its pretensions to be great; anda town without a pump may be worth whate’er it cost, but a town without a dump is a failure and a frost. We will cart away old boots and the programs of dead plays, and the baskets which held fruits in the balmy summer days: and the boxes and the kegs and the hay and straw, 1 wist, and the cabbage heads and eggs which some tragic actors missed. And we'll go upon the jump, with such articles as these, taking always to the dump everything that spreads disease. And of course we'll take the man who thinks sorrow is in style, who pursues a bilious plan and was never known to smile. To the dump we'll take him down with back number pots and pans, for a grouch can spoil a town and a hundred useful plans.