Judge, 1932-09 · page 9 of 36
Judge — September 1932 — page 9: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# "An Ant's Diary" Explanation This is a humorous piece by Parke Cummings that satirizes the pointless, repetitive busy-ness of ant colonies. The diary format documents an ant's week of relentless, circular activity: circling trees 116 times, building and destroying hills repeatedly, hauling objects back and forth. The joke is that ants appear industrious but accomplish nothing meaningful—they're trapped in endless, purposeless cycles. The two cartoon panels below add social commentary unrelated to the diary. The top cartoon mocks people who constantly discuss their medical procedures ("talking about his operation"). The bottom cartoon depicts drunken behavior, capturing how intoxication undermines physical coordination and judgment—a man can barely perform an acrobatic feat while drunk. Together, these pieces gently satirize both the natural world's absurdity and human folly: ants are mindlessly busy; people are tediously self-absorbed; drunkenness reveals human limitations. The satire is gentle rather than biting.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Judge An Ant’s Diary (From Observation Of The Crafty Beasts.) ONDAY: Spent an interesting morning today circling an oak tree a hundred and sixteen times. Sure was an exhilarating experience. Spent the after- noon lugging aterpillar up a three-foot stalk of srrass, and then letting it drop to the ground. Did this ten times. : People came here for a picnic today, and did we boys enjoy ourselves! Got stuck in some wberry jam, and it took me fifteen minutes before I could ex- Built a new ant hill at ten o'clock. Tore it down at eleven. Built another new one at twelve. Tore it down at one. Did this all afternoon. Lugyed a pine cone over twenty yards of bramble patch, and then lugged it back again. Went in the Smiths’ house, and stuck in a sugar bowl for half an hour. Fell off kitchen sink onto the floor twelve times in a row. Thursd: Very busy te , and accomplished lots of useful work. Climbed up and down a twenty foot boulder ninety-two times. Bit a dog, three cows, and my mother-in-law. Pulled a toadstool up to the top of an cighty-foot maple tree, and left it there. Ended the day by starting to gnaw y the Smith’s front door step. Friday: Another picnic here today. Decided to lug away and bury a large banana peel. Bit everybody at the picnic. Got caught in some honey. One swell day, but tomorrow I must rest. All I figure to do is to try to pull out a couple of fence posts and lug ’em up to the roof of the hen house. —PARKE CUMMINGS “Here comes that darn Jones—always talking about his operation.” “Awright—if I wush drunk c-c-could I do thish?” 7 comicbooks.com