Judge, 1935-09 · page 8 of 36
Judge — September 1935 — page 8: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Analysis of "Mistress Pepys' Journal" by Baird Leonard This is a humorous society column satirizing the social activities of wealthy New York families in August. The text mocks: **Social pretensions**: The author describes attending various upper-class events (weddings, parties, church outings) with elaborate detail and commentary on guests' behavior. **The cartoons** illustrate everyday social awkwardness: one shows someone selling umbrellas at what appears to be a boat dock (likely satirizing opportunistic vendors), and another depicts children in a playpen with the caption about a "two-hour stretch"—mocking the confining nature of proper child-rearing. The column's title alludes to Samuel Pepys' famous 17th-century diary, suggesting this is mock-historical documentation of trivial society moments. The satire targets the pretentiousness and mundane concerns of Manhattan's wealthy elite.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Mstress Pepys’ Journal By Baird Leonard OOPERSTOWN, N.Y., August 1.—Breakfast betimes, and then to the public prints, finding therein that at least one member of the Roosevelt family, young John, is shy of the camera, seeing no reason for any public interest in himself,—a piece of news momentous enough to justify the headlines which the copy-desk gave it. Read also that the young Willises, to whom we sent a magnificent Georgian salver only last autumn, are now seeking divorce papers, and it does determine me to give no more wedding presents until the marriage has endured at least seven years. All the morn- ing gone in working on my costume for tonight’s party in celebration of the Blanks’ thirteenth anniversary, the guests being asked to dress according to their impression of the number 13, and I did regret that [ had elected to go as the Countess of Yarborough, it being a tiresome business to “Looks like we’re in here for a two-hour stretch!!” assemble and attach to a green baize foundation bridge hands containing naught higher than a nine spot, in especial when Aggie Newell, the slug, came in to gape at me and tell me that the extent of her sartorial activities would be to hang | down her back a mirror which she had bribed the gardener’s child to break for her. Off to church at noon to see Fanny Bates married, the majority of the guests being attired with a formality so unwonted to our countryside that it was diffi- cult to recognize some of my closest friends, and Mistress McKim and I did agree that the average person looks better when not dressed up. Glad Sam at the ensuing collation because of his way with buffet tables, forasmuch when other men feel they have robbed the larder if they bring b: a slice of pressed meat and a dry finger roll, he appears shamelessly with stuffed eggs, two kinds of salad, Virginia ham, something delicious in aspic, and a small mound of olives. Nor did I greatly mind his subsequent singing with the band, the Bollinger and the music being sufficiently pro- vocative to set off the bride’s great-aunt, who heads phil. thropic drives and dedicates chapels. And I was so ch when Aggie Newell upset a plate of raspberry ice on her | | new gray chiffon that I did tell her she need be in no doubt as to what frock to wear to tonight’s “13” party, an event which turned out beyond our wildest dreams in that some of the younger set, having planned to stage a shipwreck off the | dock, did meet with a real accident upon their arrival, and in the confusion of their barge’s overturning, Nate Wil- loughby did sit down on a live torch. UGUST 2.—Up at the break of day and wrote before breakfast the two letters of condolence which I have postponed for so long that it were almost better to pretend ignorance of the deaths which required them, and I do wonder if all wi in stating that their husbands join them in ex- pressions of joy or sorrow are as untruthful as I am, for em “s Lord! in nine cases out of ten Sam does not even know who Remember, it’s your last chance to buy an the recipients are, and for many of them he does often en- umbrella before I pull up this awning!” (Page 30, please) peer a comicbooks.com