Judge, 1921-09-17 · page 7 of 36
Judge — September 17, 1921 — page 7: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# "The Ungentle Reader" Explanation This satirical story mocks the sentimentality of "Pollyanna" literature and those who promote relentless optimism. The cartoon shows a woman (likely a magazine reader or writer) confronting a man about his excessive cheerfulness—she brushes her hair nine times daily to manage her frustration with him. The narrative celebrates a magazine reader who murders an annoyingly cheerful "summer boarder" character—a chatty optimist addicted to puns and self-satisfied behavior. The humor inverts expectations: the killer is presented as justified and even noble because his victim embodied saccharine positivity. The satire targets early-20th-century "Pollyanna" culture—the forced optimism movement—by suggesting such relentless cheerfulness deserves violent punishment. The story frames the killer as a restrained realist opposing manufactured happiness, making the point that aggressive positivity can be genuinely maddening and socially destructive rather than virtuous. The piece is bitter social commentary on American optimism culture.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Drawn hy Oxsex Lev THINK STATIONS, She Bur» “WELL, VARIOUS MANI bo you YOU ARE IN 1.0} VM RECOMING EXCESSIVELY PARTICULAR ITH ABOUT MY NINE TIMES A DAY, AGAINST ONCE, REFORE | MET you.” The Ungentle Reader ONCE saw a fellow mortal slain and was glad. It was one splen- pus conclusion, The victim was a chatty, peppy, gladsome mountain-and-seashore addict and a foreordained summer boarder. He Was cursed with the pun habit, had a high tenor voice and Francis X. Bushman was not more high- ly pleased with himself. When I saw this self-confessed life-of-the- porch-party prepared for his sar- cophagus I was glad! glad! glad! It was the niftiest case of assault and battery I ever looked upon; it thrilled (Pollyanalysis Punished) By J. me with pleasure. And what could be sweeter than the fact that the man who did the noble deed was a reader on the staff of a woman's magazine! This reader chap was a restrained optimist; his apparent pessimism being simply an occupa- tional deformity. At the mere men- tion of a saccharine, sticky book or play he became goatless and morose. And if someone used the word “wis ful,” the elemental, primal Rex Beachish urge to sl. urged up with- in his bored but sterling soul. Yet at other times the old dear registered EK. Hepiey, Jr. NAL APPEARANCE, [NOW RRUSH MY HAT normaley and loved his country, his family, a good cigar, a little of the elixir of sociability, now and then, and his golf club. One warm night the reader, the boarder and I remained on the hotel porch after the others had retired. We were grateful to be relieved of the ladies’ chatter about slip-ons, honeydew sweaters, personal ailments and the defamation of those board- ers not fortunate enough to be pres- ent to take the stand in their own defense. “Will you take a welt at ” T asked. The reader un- comicbooks.com