Judge, 1920-10-09 · page 9 of 32
Judge — October 9, 1920 — page 9: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# "The Mechanical Home" - Judge Magazine Satire This page combines a humorous illustration with serialized fiction. The top cartoon, drawn by Robert Wilder, satirizes turn-of-the-century consumer culture and the obsession with labor-saving mechanical devices. It depicts a bedroom absurdly cluttered with gadgets—alarm clocks, mosquito eliminators, furnace igniters, bath starters, window manipulators—mocking the promise that newfangled inventions would modernize domestic life and improve comfort. The accompanying text advertises updating old bedsteads with "convenient devices" from hardware stores, a pitch clearly aimed at the newly prosperous middle class. Below runs serialized adventure fiction about a shipwreck involving characters named Harold, Clara, Edith, and John Croyden. The narrative appears to satirize popular adventure stories and romantic melodrama of the era—tales of storm-tossed ships and masculine heroics that contrasted sharply with the domestic, mechanized world depicted above.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Cuock with Acanm Artachment “( + Drinking Warer Seai- Autoren] | FR Bea Mane TevepHone Buratar Locater a} & JaBBER [bears HooKs Reaoinc Lame leer | e IMINA © _ cee ¥ FLA THenmorserer Prcow (ieee Furnace L IGNITER, . [Car Purrer Our hevemtion Rint REED ce I a Drawn by Rowrnt Wire Modernize your old bedsteads. and convenient devices which may be purchased at your local hardware store. your comfort. To my horror I saw a great stone lying ready to his hand. Beside me was nothing. I gave myself up for lost, when at that very moment I heard Edith’s voice behind me saying “The shovel, quick, the shovel!” The noble girl had rushed back to our encampment and had fetched me the shovel. “Swat him with that!” she cried. I seized the shovel, and with the roar of a wounded bull—or as near as I could make it I rushed out from the rock, the shovel swung over my head But the fight was all out of Croyden. “Don’t strike,” he said, “I'm all in. crack with that kind of thing.” He sat down upon the sand, limp. Scen thus he somehow seemed to be quite a small man, not a cave man at all. His goat skin suit shrunk in on him. I could hear his pants as he sat “T surrender,” he said. ‘Take both the women. They are yours.”” ood over him leaning upon the shovel. had closed in neartous. — . “I suppose you are her husband, are you?" I nodded. “T thought you were. Take her.” Meantime Clara had drawn nearer to me. She looked some: how very beautiful with her golden hair in the sunlight, and the white furs draped about her. I couldn't stand a The two women “royden went on. Tue Mecuanicat Home Grandma's fourposter can be brought completely up-to-date by the addition of a few simple Will save harsh words and add immeasurably to “Harold. is it’ you? How I didn’t know you were so “Harold!” she exclaimed. strange and masterful you look. strong.” “When [ was alone.” I said. “on the Himalayas hunting the humpo or humped buffalo——** Clara clasped her hands looking into my face. ey he said, “tell me about it.” Meantime I could see that Edith had gone over to John Croyden “John,” she said, “you shouldn't sit on the wet sand like that. You will get a chill. Let me help you to get up.” I looked at Clara and at Croyden. “How has this happened?’ [ asked. “We were on the same ship.” Croyden said. great storm. Even the captain had never se I know,” I interrupted. “so had ours.” he ship struck a rock, and blew out her four funnels— “Ours did too.” I nodded “The bowsprit was broken, and the steward’s pantry was carried away. The captain gave orders to leave the ship “It is enough, Croyden.” I said, “I see it all now. You were left behind when the boats cleared, by what accident you don’t know——"* “T don’t,” said Croyden. Tell me.” “There came a comicbooks.com