Judge, 1923-02-24 · page 13 of 36
Judge — February 24, 1923 — page 13: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Analysis for Modern Readers This page contains two separate pieces of satire from Judge magazine: **"Commuter's Canter"** (main text): A humorous sketch about three men planning a walking trip from Gilchrist to South Fairfield Junction (Connecticut locations). The joke mocks overcomplicated trip planning: Bob wants to walk 22.5 miles, Tom insists on measuring with a map ruler, Jim worries about distance, and ultimately *none of them actually go*. The satire targets the type of people who obsess over logistics and planning but never execute their plans. The digression about crows reinforces absurdist humor. **"The Broadway Tiptoe"** and **"Absent-minded Barber"** (illustrations): Quick visual gags. The first depicts an exaggerated walking posture. The second shows a barber offering to let a customer shave themselves—likely mocking distracted service workers or the absurdity of hiring someone who won't do their job. The overall theme: satirizing the gap between intention and action, and the pretensions of certain urban types (commuters, Broadway characters).
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
The Broadway tiptoe. a right ahead and name the second man, the timorous one who wanted to know how far it was from Gilchrist. to South Fairfield Junction. We shall call him Jim. The third man in the group is known to his friends as Tom. He hasn't done anything up to now but he is the one who hunts around and finds a ruler. Also he works out the distance by ascertaining the scale on which the map is drawn. “It is twenty- two and five-tenths miles from Gilchrist to South Fairfield Junction,” he an- nounces. “Just a good brisk tramp,” says Bob. “That distance is as the crow flies,” adds Tom. > going to plung A™” at this point we cannot resist a digression. We wonder if crows actually fly the way they are supposed to? Apparently, they ‘are compelled in their youth to learn just one maxim. In a human home the youngster may find on xd bless our home,”’ “*Posi- y no ¢ s cashed,” “The man worth while is the man who can smile when everything goes dead wrong,” or practically anything. The variety is un- limited. But there is nothing like that in the houses of the craws. They stick to just one motte straight line is the shortest distance between two points.” And in crow morality the greatest cr which a citizet We once saw a flock of crows merry-go-round with great violence took turns at biting the roof. Of course, king a rnth miles is emonstrates going to fly it. I art easy and work too much for the first Jim, en if we are think we ought to s up.” “No, Jim,” says Bob severely, “you've got the wrong spirit about allthis. If ,.” interrupts Tom, “did you notice ig that keeps running back 4 York, New Haven and Hartford hard feeling at the time which would be o that would be red. This is gray could look into the future. Of course with black spots. ‘Th The little sawtooth things you see ev now and then are bridges or swamps. whole point of a walking trip. That's can’t tell whi Drawn by Joun Hew, Je. Commuter’s canter. One of the numer- ous cane twirlers. en Gilchrist. and South Fairfield Junction.” Don’t _be silly, Tom,” Bob begins » must be bridges. How Jo the thi Il we must We can’t coddle our- trouble with us; es too much as it the suggests Jim. ys Tom, “perhaps yants to.”” Jim, “I’m not going. I king, but I’m not going to You fellows can do it don't mind christ and South Fair- torture my. alone.” replies Bob. “It’s the This decision creates a good deal of quite unnec: if any one of the three at means a river. none of them ever will go from Gilchrist ‘y to South Fairfield Junction. That's the nh. It doesn’t make any the fun of it. After you've got it all There aren’t any of them fixed up you don’t have to take it. &X Absent-minded Barber—Shave yourself? 1 comicbooks.com