Judge, 1921-10-15 · page 9 of 36
Judge — October 15, 1921 — page 9: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# "The Love Affair of a Fly" — Judge Magazine Satire This page contains a humorous serialized story mocking romantic sentimentality and working-class courtship. "The Love Affair of a Fly" (continued from earlier) depicts Moe Mural, an apparently ordinary man, pursuing Betsy Butterbouncer atop a cathedral spire. The satire targets naive romantic idealism: Moe overlooks that Betsy is old, rich, and overweight because she's "fearless" like a movie star. The joke culminates when she admits entering the church through the *inside*—implying she took the practical route while Moe performed dangerous acrobatics on the outside, mocking masculine posturing. The secondary pieces ("Reform," "Pendulumbago," "Minus Cupid," "The Land of the Free") are brief satirical verses on contemporary concerns: reform movements, travel, theatrical trends, and presumably American freedom. These were typical Judge magazine filler—witty jabs at everyday life and current events rather than focused political commentary.
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The Love Affair of a Fly (Continued from page 6) possibly get away, Moe gazed at her awhile, and prayed. Here, at last, was the girl of his dreams! The woman without fear. The female Fairbanks. What if she were old and rich? What if she were fat and upside down? She was his her heart was in her mouth. Luckily her mouth was big. . . It was while the happy pair was swinging from Moe’s rope, reaching their feet for a cornice, that he dared ask: “Will you—Betsy, would you mind letting me have fifty cents, till we are married, dear?” She waited till her feet hit the sidewalk, then, as her head partly stopped whirling she answered, “if we can spend our honeymoon on the outside of the Woolworth Build- “I’m going down,” she replied. “I told the sexton I’d be back long be- fore this.” Moe grabbed her shoulder. His paradise, in one moment, had busted. “Do you mean to say,” he groaned, “that you came up here on the inside of this church?” and he began to weep large fat tears, flavored with despair. ing—yes!” and fainted amongst his arms. Reform Reform just now is all the craze, And with the movement growing, We find we cannot mend our ways Without the patches showing. Pendulumbago Mrs. Steneck had just returned home from a long trip she had made with her hus- band, a_travel- soulmate. For ihe first time in his life Moe Mural knew ex- citement. It was a prickly feel- ing, all over. It was a heart that missed on three cylinders. It was a mad de- sire to kiss—kiss —kiss! Betsy Butterbouncer also was excited. But to her it ing salesman for a manufacturing plant of rubber goods. “You've been away along time,” said her friend Mrs. Pelf. “Didn’t you get tired of being on the go all the time?” “Oh, well, that’s my lot,” meant a desire to leave that spire as soon as possible. Kissing was all right, but so was the use of the feet, as in walking. Feverishly he loosed her, and feverishly he proposed. She might support him, if she positively in- sisted, but he simply had to marry her. No other girl in the world, he knew, could have got up so far on such a night. Partly because he wouldn’t release her till she said “yes”—and she hated to be seen on top a cathedral spire on Monday morning, when all the traffic cops would be trying to flirt with her—and partly to spite her grandchildren, Mrs. Butterbouncer accepted him. So down they came, and, for a moment, standing on the ridgepole, looked into each other’s eyes. In Moe’s eyes were looks of fierce, crimson love. In Betsy’s, cinders. And then she turned towards a trap door in the roof, and with all the grace of a 300-pound widow, her feet groped for the ladder below. “What you doing?” asked Moe. Ah, how many women have lied to save the man they loved! One mo- ment, and for one moment only, did Betsy Butterbouncer hesitate. Then she removed a No. 12 C shoe from the trap doorway. “I only did it to test your love, dear,” she whispered, hugging him like a boa- constrictor. “Lead on, and I will follow you—forever!” . But answered Mrs. Steneck, “I mar- ried a rubber man and I've been bouncing around ever since.” Minus Cupid In a new play there are to be no love scenes.—Theatrical note. Oh! when will it occur? Let’s hope it may be very soon, But can the authors stir The audience without a spoon? The Land of the Free. comicbooks.com