Judge, 1921-11-19 · page 4 of 36
Judge — November 19, 1921 — page 4: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Analysis of Judge Magazine Page: "Football" This page contains Chet Shafer's humorous essay on American college football, illustrated with two cartoons by G.B. Inwood. The top cartoon depicts a domestic scene where a woman aims a pistol at a man, with the caption "For Gawd's sake, woman, cut that out an' go back to bed—ye make me nervous." The joke suggests football season makes men so anxious about games that even gunfire seems less stressful than their wives' antics. The lower cartoon, labeled "Peek a' Booze," shows two anthropomorphized figures (appearing to be football players or mascots) in playful interaction. Shafer's essay satirizes football's intensity—its violent collisions, obsessive fan culture, and social consequences. He notes the sport eliminates players through injury and eliminates girls "from back home," suggesting football's all-consuming nature damages both bodies and relationships. The satire critiques the era's football mania.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Drawn by G. B. INwoop. “Fer Gawd’s sake, woman, cut that out an’ go back to bed—ye make me nervous,” rooters for the Golden Rule and the callous enthusiasts who stand up to see every play. It is a game that requires about one hour to stage and a century or two to re- hash. To a spectator the intimation comes during the first quarter that a gigantic struggle for supremacy is going on in the distance while he is being lavishly entertained by the im- maculate cheer leaders in the fore- ground. If the present idea of num- bering the yell masters is carried out the game will be much more-exciting. Starting with the kickoff, a foot- ball contest ends with a snake dance through the campus. In the olden days a player buried his nose in the turf in the afternoon and in a foam- ing beaker the balance of the day. Frrcsters tf is a conflict between But since that great panacea for the Z abrased proboscis and the wounds of defeat has been eliminated the de- nouement is much less pleasant. The big fight in any football contest is to keep out of the dust on the way down and to find a seat at a wayside eating house on the way back. Football By Cuet SHAFER It is a hard game on millinery, especially when some player goes off tackle for a touchdown. Outyelling a rival college has its distinctions. But outpunting helps more on the season’s total yardage. Drop kicks count, and so does a short-arm jab if it escapes the attention of the referee. Violations of local ordi- nances result in penalties, and the player who has two feet in his own mouth and one in his opponent's gets four times the value of the trick. Undue roughness is punishable by a fine of twice the length of the grid- iron, which takes the victim of the assault close enough to the club house so he can walk the rest of the way unaided. Present-day football is made up largely of aerial plays in which the object is the same as in stud poker—to get an ace in the hole. Songs of alma maters are sung at football contests on alma_pater’s money. The real tragedy of the game is not centered so much around the casualty list. It involves the bird who went out for the ’varsity and was eliminated by the coach after the first practice trying to alibi to the girl from back home who came down to see him run the ends. Big intersectional contests bring back the old grads and the fraternity mat who asks his brother if they have any members of the team in the house— that one-time evidence of Greek letter supremacy—and receives a negative