Judge, 1921-10-08 · page 8 of 36
Judge — October 8, 1921 — page 8: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# "His Mother's Picture" and "The Plain Man's Lament" **"His Mother's Picture"** satirizes silent film melodrama. A director instructs an actor to murder his "brother" but be stopped by emotion upon seeing his dead mother's portrait. During filming, the actor grins at the photograph—revealing it's actually **George Washington**, not the mother. The joke mocks both the overwrought sentimentality of early cinema and perhaps the excessive patriotic reverence of the era. **"The Plain Man's Lament"** expresses working-class frustration with post-WWI taxation and government complexity. The speaker admits ignorance of economics, tariffs, and international affairs (Versailles Treaty reference), but knows one thing: he's constantly taxed for any activity—talking, singing, smoking—while government bureaucrats spend the money wastefully. It's a critique of expanding taxation and perceived governmental inefficiency, reflecting 1920s taxpayer resentment.
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Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
His Mother’s : Picture ) By RALPH DYER 4 by 4 “\JOW, then,” ex- ‘ai a plained the di- &, fel rector carefully, “at the word ‘Camera!’ you climb into the library through that large window. Then you creep up behind Van Norden’s chair and raise your stiletto for the death blow. But before this can hap- pen your eye falls upon a picture hanging over the mantel. It is a photograph of your dead mother. The man in the chair is your brother. You are horrified—ashamed. You drop the knife and slink out of the room. Get the idea?” The new leading man nodded. A second later, to the noisy accompani- ment of a camera, he climbed into the set via the window. Creeping up behind his unsuspecting victim he raised the murderous stiletto. Then his eyes wandered to the picture over the mantel. A slow grin spread over his features. NATURAL LAW The inertia of a given body increases in proportion to the amount of ponderable matter in its neighborhood. “Surprise!” the director shouted at him. “Register surprise! You're looking at your mother whom you haven’t seen for twenty years—not Drawn by JouN BRADSHAW CRANDELL. Finis? at a cartoon in JUDGE.” But the actor continued to grin and indicated the photograph with a convulsive wave of his hand. Angrily the director strode into the set and stared at it. “Who put that there?” he gasped, reddening. The picture was an excellent like- ness of the erstwhile, noble looking Father of his country—George Washington! The Plain Man’s Lament By N. BRYLLION FAGIN I DON’T know much geography, Economies and law; I stand of legislography In mortalest of awe; I don’t see all complexities In mandates, leagues, et al.; I don’t know what a tariff is, I’ve never seen Versailles; when it comes to finance schemes, I find myself at sea— A hundred boards or one—just seems The same to me! And But I do know this one blamed thing: I’m raising revenue! That if I walk or talk or sing, Or cuss or smoke or chew. My taxes pile and grow on me Like weeds on lonely lots; And someone spends it cheerfully And holds the empty pots. I’m just a revenue machine And cranked up all the time— But if I run the way I’ve been I won't be worth a dime! comicbooks.com