Judge, 1934-08 · page 12 of 36
Judge — August 1934 — page 12: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Judge Magazine: "Mistress Pepys' Journal" This is a humor column by Baird Leonard spoofing Samuel Pepys' famous 17th-century diary. The author presents a female narrator's observations from July 1-2, written in mock-historical style mimicking Pepys' casual, gossipy tone. The satire targets upper-class domestic concerns: women's knitting skills, servants' incompetence, social calls, and Victorian furniture (walnut whatnots, Sheraton sofas). A running joke involves the narrator's digestive troubles and a disastrous class reunion featuring "strictly feminine" foods. The cartoon at bottom shows two figures in a car, illustrating an office anecdote where a boss encourages an employee ("Bemis") not to miss opportunities—comic contrast between workplace ambition and real-life mishaps (cigarette burns, indigestion). The humor relies on period-specific domesticity and gender stereotypes about women's preoccupations with housekeeping minutiae.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Judge Mistress Pepys’ Journal By Baird Leonard OOPERSTOWN, N.Y. July 1.— C Awake too betimes, so lay ponder- this and that, in especial variou s which impress me, such a in women who can pick up stitches whic ed at their knit footmen who balance serving trays behind t fights, ete., and sud 1 recall how Bren Hyland, we accused him last night of quoth, “That's * a retort which was not so they have dr with one hat 1, persons who can stop in view of all th talk there is now about keeping on me the reement of make acid, — findit € refuses to let her ¢ a can pick ney by laying odds that the Finally 1 F w brown stri and off to call on Angie Heminway, in their draw Why is it, [ hich feed the sen- “Why, only today the boss said to me: ‘Bemis, you're a comer all right, you never miss your opportunities. gn to th “Wood- are al- timentality of ind: man-spare-tha most unfailin vl Lord! T can underst folio Shi y to re or a Sheraton but why anybody should ta a walnut itnot or sereen decorated with bevond my make 4 wild ri : Which had been pu gh the meat ith the most am dres in my life, and at my stom: reassembled able grinder ; that ach is after the my class reuniot he ampton, whe! le foods are strictly feminine, and where I i} chicken s fudge ¢ » have for the remit my days. My feet, travelled dyspeps ler of too, which tround,” tl. thanks to young Dr, LaBarr of Oneonta, tre almost back to nor ULY 2.—In a great wax this morning because a flake from my cigarette my best bed do not care how kind a brand of tobacco may be to my throat if it is cruel to my clothes and table linen, back of my 1 put me in a (Page burn a hole in for Lord! I reat pain in the ‘k did not serve to r temper, neith- ase) comicbooks.com