Judge, 1928-08-18 · page 10 of 36
Judge — August 18, 1928 — page 10: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Explanation for Modern Readers This is a satirical cautionary tale by Dr. Seuss (Theodor Geisel) mocking overly moralistic parenting advice. The "Turnbull Triplets" are fictional characters whose downfall stems from a single indulgence: eating between meals. The satire works by taking this minor transgression absurdly seriously. Five talented young girls (one an athlete, one domestic, one musical) are portrayed as doomed by snacking—their abilities fade, they descend into vice, and ultimately murder each other in a lighthouse after decades of uncontrolled eating. The joke targets early 20th-century "Alienist" (psychiatrist) pseudo-science and parental anxiety culture that blamed minor behavioral lapses for catastrophic moral collapse. By escalating a trivial act into tragedy, Seuss ridicules alarmist warnings to American mothers about child-rearing. The dark ending and clinical tone intensify the parody of serious medical/psychological literature warning against moral decay.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
JUDGE The Tragic Tale of the Turn- bull Triplets, or, An Urgent Warning to the American Mother By Dr. Seuss, the Alienist In all my forty years’ intern- ship in the Tombs no more hor- rible tale has ever been brought before me than that of the Turn- bull Triplets of Toledo, Violet, Daisy and Mary Rose were their names and at the age of five they were happy little dumplings with rosy red mugs. Violet was the athletic one and held the national junior pole vaulting champion- ship. Every spring the Harvard track team would send its pole vaulters out to Toledo to study her style. Daisy was the domes- tic one and knitted the underwear for the whole family. Her fingers were nimble as nimble can be. And Mary Rose, that little dick- ens, made over cighty dollars a week playing first trombone in the Toledo Philharmonic. Do you wonder that these little girls were loved and respected by all? Then, on May 18, 1898, they took the first careless step—the ter- rible step tha was to hasten © them on the road to perdi- tion. It hap- pened some- thing like this: et us eat between meals!” sug- gested Mary Rose that af- ternoon. A perfectly inno- cent suggestion, mind you, for Mary Rose had not been told! So the triplets t 1 into the larder and ate five ly doughnuts, a crab flake cock- ail, considerable ravioli and not a few alligator pears. At first there were no ill ef- fects, but after they had con- tinued this pernicious habit over the period of several weeks, it grew beyond their control and they became veritable gourmands! Soon their rosy checks were gone forever and ‘one by one. their charms disappeared. In 1900 the Harvard rack ‘Team did not come to Toledo; it found that it could get better instruction from a little girl in Seattle. longer knitted woolen underdraw- ers; her mind now concentrated on silken chemises and other in- ventions of the devil. And Mary Rose found that her lips twitched Daisy no- so violently that all she could get out of her trombone was chords. She lost her job. People shook their heads sadly and in 1901 the three girls (now premature reprobates of 8) dis guised themselves as a band of vpsies and left Toledo forever. When they got to the Massachu- setts coast they pooled what re- mained of their savings and pur- a lonely lighthouse off They locked themselves in and for twenty-six years in- dulged in their awful perversion —eating between meals morning, noon and night. Late last after midnight, took place. A fisherman past the lighthouse on his way home from a party, heard a hor rible series of — blood-curdling shrieks. The next morning he re turned with the police. An inves tigation was made and the most astly quadruple murder ever perpetrated was brought to light. Violet had strangled Daisy, Daisy had strangled Mary Rose, and Mary Rose in turn had strangled the shortly The case needs no com- ment. ‘The cul- mination of y years of gas tronomic abuse had broken upon them with unrelenting fury. I hope that it will come to the cars of at least one arcless — moth- er who allows her children to eat between comicbooks.com