Judge, 1923-03-24 · page 9 of 36
Judge — March 24, 1923 — page 9: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Judge Magazine Page Analysis This page contains three distinct satirical pieces typical of early 20th-century American humor: **"A Mystery Play in One Act"** parodies the overwrought conventions of stage melodrama—specifically the absurd tradition of bodies mysteriously appearing from every possible location (doors, fireplaces, clocks, chandeliers). The joke escalates to absurdity: a butler, driven mad by endless corpses, shoots himself. This mocks both the melodramatic theater genre and its predictable, contrived plotting. **"Speed"** satirizes the tedious social obligations of women's clubs—attending meetings to recite vegetable names and recycled encyclopedia entries on obscure topics, then returning home to prepare dinner. The satire targets both the pretentiousness of such organizations and the limited intellectual engagement they offered women. **"Regret"** presents a rural dialect poem about a mysterious stranger who turns out to have been a writer all along—suggesting small-town regret at not recognizing or nurturing talent when it was present. It reflects broader anxieties about missed opportunities and unrecognized genius. The page represents Judge's characteristic blend of theatrical parody, domestic satire, and sentimental Americana humor.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
A Mystery Play in One Act by Norman Anthony Act I 1 LIVING-ROOM—the same kcind of a living-room you’ en in As curtain rises a butler is arranging things the same as you're n 7,000 other plays. As he polishes ase doors a dead figure falls out of case. Burter—Oh, heavens! Ile rushes to door, and as he opens it, ther dead figure falls out from behind r plays. Oh, heave Ile steps back aghast, and looks for ther exit. Goes to another door, and he opens it another figure falls into room.) ButLer BUTLER Good gracious! By this time the butler is becoming ferical. [So is the audience.| He s around in dismay and finally makes the window—as he opens it another dead ire falls into the room.) Butter—Dear me! In mad fear the butler dives for the open fireplace only to have a dead figure fall out in front of him.) Burter—Sakes alive! With a scream of fear the butler steps back, and as he does so, a dead figure falls from the door of the grandfather's clock in the corner, another falls out of a closet door, and one drops from the chandelier.) Burter—Mercy! Takes a gun from library table drawer shoots himself.) Curtain Mountain goats. Speed by H.W. Davis ‘0 Go out for an afternoon at the Homemaker’s Club, to respond to roll call with the names of favorite vegetables, to listen to three rewrites from the en- cyclopedia on social conditions in eastern Mesopotamia, to return home and delight your husband with a dinner of breaded veal—that is the life. Advance and be recognized. 7 Regret by William Sanford A™ ER come to our town— He were a likely lookin’ cuss, Hired a little shack 0’ me, Said he didn’t want no fuss— Just wanted to be left alone, Like a dog what’s got a bone. We never had a gink like that Livin’ in our little town, Never sittin’ with the gang, Talkin’ news that’s goin’ ’roun’, But folks can’t all be smart like us— I felt sorry for the cuss. Burned his lamp till atter one— Give our folks a sort o’ fright, Seemed to be busy like inside— Kept the shades pulled down at night. I seen him sometimes in the yard— *Peared to be thinkin’ awful hard. In ‘bout three months he up and went— That gink we thought was sorter queer, And now you know what people sez: He writ a book while he was here I swan, I wish that I'd a knew it, I'd had him tell me how to do it! se parlor)— here and Sweet Young Thing (in Mamma! Mamma! Come make Harold quit teasing me! Mamma (from stairway landing)— What is he doing, dear? “He's sitting at the other end of the comicbooks.com