Judge, 1921-04-09 · page 29 of 32
Judge — April 9, 1921 — page 29: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This satirical piece uses ancient Mesopotamian history as a thinly veiled commentary on contemporary labor disputes and social unrest in 1920s America. The narrative describes workers in ancient Ur complaining about contracts, wages, and taxes during construction of a temple—mirroring real industrial conflicts of the post-WWI era. The "ancient tablet" discovery serves as the satire's mechanism: the "timeless wisdom" discovered is simply that conditions were always bad ("Things are not as they have been"). The piece mocks both workers' grievances and nostalgic claims that the past was better, suggesting complaints about labor conditions are eternally futile. The accompanying advertisement for Cunard-Anchor steamships and brief humor items ("Home Brew," snoringchurch-goers) fill the page with era-appropriate commercial and social content typical of Judge magazine's format.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
IGE pril 9, 1921 A Word from the Ages By Kexpatt Bansixc n the days of Chaldea (it is writ in the Canon of Kings), When Sargon of Akkad was preaching the Gospel of Beau tiful Things, hey planned a great great river, where ‘Vhe people of Ur might worship, and utter magnificent prayer. Temple to Belus, on the banks of the sin the City of Nineveh, so in the City of Ur: ivor was fraught with suspicion; rumors of caste got astir. Contractors complained of their Contracts; the Workers complained of their Hire— s in the building of Sodom, Gomorrah and Assur and Tyre. Methods and Men and Materials were not as good as they were; People complained of the taxes; the priests of the incense and myrrh. Vhe Omens were not what they deranged. So the work on the had changed. had been; Labor, by war, was Temple was halted; the worth of the talent r uncovered a tablet of stone, inscribed in a lang cters, vague and in consequence wis its prophets were filled Then it was Aku the Dig \ relic of Semetic Ages, Curious, cuneiform cha And the city was stricken with wonder; with surm This Word carried down through the The dust of the centuries cover the site of the 2, raved! nS caf CUNARD. -ANCHOR Lot Branchies and Agencies: + theoughout U U.S.A. and Canada is Word from the Ages; Truth from the Ancient of ace cried in amaze, give us guidance “Wisdom is vouchsafed by Belus!” the pop As it carried the stone to the Sag at last, For here is the Code to Perfection that reigned in the times that “the goc Deciphered, the hieroglyphics, Were read to the Workers bs affirms) From the Dynast of Issa that perished three hundred deca before Ur, cribed in Sumerian terms, gon (the Canon of Kings so Ages; “ dlas! not as they sere. ‘Temple, Is lost in the Dusk of Tradition, along with the gods in his But the Sons of the Builders of Babel still contemplate—even as we ‘Alas! Things are not as they have been.” Can Be. No—and they Neve Egg View News-Notes By Lesue Vax Every A tragedy was averted yesterday when Chet Lumley removed a botue of Home Brew from his pocket just before it exploded. Plato Prouty, who snores in church, is be lieved to hold the world’s record for chest expansion. Two Views of It Success is making money.” “No, success is keeping what you make.” comicbooks.com