Judge, 1921-09-10 · page 15 of 36
Judge — September 10, 1921 — page 15: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This 1920s office satire by James Hammon uses multiple vignettes to joke about post-vacation adjustment for different workplace employees. Each caption offers tongue-in-cheek "solutions" to boost morale: - A bookkeeper should maintain home comforts to ease back into work - A stenographer needs a "dummy dance-lizard" (dummy/doll) distraction on her desk - The boss will forget vacation by fly-fishing for expense checks instead of trout - Office boys should play freely in front offices - Salesmen should use adding machines as foot-massagers The cartoon satirizes how modern offices operated and the stress of returning from vacation. The title references "normalcy"—likely alluding to President Harding's 1920 "return to normalcy" campaign. The humor lies in absurd, impractical "remedies" that exaggerate rather than solve workplace tedium and post-vacation readjustment.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
ly from his country Cy boarding-house S The bookkeeper witha large family willget intofis stride better if not brokenaway too sudden- surroundings LN A dummy dance-lizzard on the stenogs desk will quickly ease the post-vacation strain Fly casting for checks will soon cause the Boss to \ forget fis vacation along the trout streams GASOLINE The office-boys work will be happier af hes permitted to play like this L in the front office 19 Mugs ANEAD Tor ROAD BhocKkeD Si DETouR s) i| = The salesman who took a two weeks ur will work better if allowed todo this eight orten timesa day to the adding mactune Drawn by JAMES HAMMON. Back TO NORMALCY IN THE OFFICE AFTER THE VACATION SEASON. 1s comicbooks.com