Judge, 1925-07-18 · page 27 of 37
Judge — July 18, 1925 — page 27: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page collects humorous anecdotes from Judge's early years, satirizing American social customs and class attitudes circa 1898-1901. **Key targets:** 1. **Rural/frontier nostalgia**: "Getting Friendly" mocks the idealized "good old days" by showing neighbors borrowing goods—presenting frontier life as quaint but inconvenient. 2. **Immigrant humor**: The soap-buying joke uses dialect humor (common-era ethnic stereotyping) to mock lower-class speech patterns and urban poverty. 3. **Geographic snobbery**: Brooklyn and New Jersey jokes reflect period class anxieties about urban crowding and migration. 4. **Irish-American caricature**: The palm-reading dialogue uses Irish brogue to make crude jokes about large families and corporal punishment. 5. **Class cynicism**: The railroad joke's punchline—"the small stockholders!"—reflects Gilded Age skepticism about corporate corruption, where ordinary investors lose money when companies fail. 6. **Moral hypocrisy**: The golf joke satirizes clergy who oppose Sunday recreation while potentially avoiding moral scrutiny themselves. The humor relies heavily on ethnic caricature and period prejudices now considered offensive.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
ASK DAD—HE KNOWS What They Laughed at in the Good Old Days GETTING FRIENDLY New Neicupor—Could I borrow your child for a moment? Op SettLer—What do you want of him? “TI want to send him over to the Jones's to borrow a cupful of sugar.” R. F, QUTCAULT in JUDGE, 1900, ~ “SS AND SHE TOOK THE CAKE Lirtte Gru—I wants a cake of soap. Druc CLerx—Hate it scented? “No, I won't have it sented, I'll take it wit? me. We only live around de corner.” Like Paradise to Them Cora—How in the world do people manage to live in Brooklyn? Merrill—You must remember that many of them moved there from Jersey. —Judye, 1901 An Old Story Mrs. O’Reagan—Did yez ever hov yer palm read, Mrs. O'Reilly? Mrs. O'Reilly—Phwat a question, Mrs. O’Reagan! Haven't Oi had ten children an’ had to spank all of thim? —Judge, 1898 For One Thing Parson Primrose—What possible good can you see in Sunday golf? Crabshaw—It keeps the people from reading the Sunday papers. —Judge, 1900 The Regular Routine Son—Pop, after a railroad goes into a receiver's hands what's the next thing done? Father—The small stockholders! —Judge, 1899