Judge, 1929-08-24 · page 11 of 36
Judge — August 24, 1929 — page 11: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Judge Magazine Satire Analysis This page contains two distinct satirical pieces: **Upper section**: A narrative about "Sibyl Goldwasser" suffering from "meat-knife bend"—a spinal curvature caused by excessive corset-wearing. The six-panel sequence illustrates her physical deterioration from this fashionable but dangerous practice. The story mocks both the vanity of women pursuing impossible beauty standards and the pseudo-medical consequences of tight-lacing corsets, which actually did cause skeletal deformation in the early 20th century. The protagonist's dramatic response satirizes sentimental male rescuer narratives. **Lower section**: A brief domestic comedy showing an "Art Connoisseur" admiring what he describes as an impressive sculpture, while his wife reveals it's simply "a knob off the brass bed." The joke mocks pretentious art appreciation and the gap between aesthetic pretension and mundane reality. Both pieces exemplify *Judge*'s trademark humor: satirizing contemporary fashion obsessions, gender dynamics, and social pretension through exaggerated illustration and ironic text.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Then Sibyl we. one day he Goldwasser encountered in pecan She was still the piquant Sibyl of other days but that b of diseases, meat-knife curvature, had bent her proud back. whose elastic spine had graced South Bend’s most brilliant binges now looked Ii a question-mark. — Before cuteheon could speak, she closed with a loud snap and doubled up at his feet. He pressed the spring n the small of her back and she ne spinal smiled weakly as she unfolded. A moment later she succumbed in his arms with a sigh. Escutel was so moved that he ded his remaining years and the five dollars he had earned by cartoon- ing to the eradication of mea knife bend, as it is popularly | called. | As you can sce from the photographs—that is, if you are still, reading this—the transformed Miss Goldwasser overnight from a healthy viva- cious meat-knife surrounded by adoring boy-friends into an effete voluptuary, wearied of the gay life of Europes solace in the momer of the elusive absinth *s show her holding the in of absinthe while disease three stag in gray lounge suits. Gone is all her youthful elasticity, lubricity, and electricity, leaving two rooms and a bath which look as if the people that used to live there kept coal in it. Some people certainly are swines, taking the bulbs out of the sockets, breaking up the furniture, and jumping the lease with a phone bill of twenty-six dollars. No wonder Escutch- con refuses to sublet his apart- ment next summer. In conclusion, nobody seems to have paid any attention to our last call for funds to carry on the good work. If every man, woman, and child who reads this will send us five dolls we will have fifteen dollars, which is more than enough. Just shove your fiver in an envelope, mail it to Mr. Perelman in care of this n and write it off to contributions” on your income | tax. You will anyway, you chiseling cheay —Prneeman superb impression? His Wire—Don’t be silly, John. brass bed. Tur Ant Coxnotsseun—Alberta! Where did you get this What colossal magnitude! Such feeling— That's a knob off the 2. S0cto' Comicbooks.com