Judge — August 10, 1918

# Analysis This appears to be a **WWI-era advertisement**, not satire. The "Lucky Strike Cigarette" ad promotes eating "more vegetables—less meat" as a patriotic duty, claiming it helps "the Government besides." The message reflects **food rationing and conservation efforts** during World War I, when the U.S. government encouraged civilians to reduce meat consumption to preserve supplies for troops. The ad co-opts this patriotic messaging to sell cigarettes by suggesting Lucky Strikes are "toasted" and help with digestion of vegetables. The irony a modern reader might notice: a tobacco company marketing cigarettes as health-supporting while promoting government rationing. This would be an unthinkable advertising approach today, but reflects early 20th-century attitudes toward both smoking and wartime sacrifice.

# Analysis of Judge Magazine Page, August 10, 1918 The cartoon "Go Seek Out Momus' Giddy Sprite" (drawn by H. Palmer) features silhouetted figures—two cherubic sprites flanking a central human figure—arranged in a decorative horizontal frieze. The imagery appears allegorical rather than depicting specific identifiable figures. The accompanying poem "Ballade of 'The Happy Medium'" by Howard Dietz celebrates laughter and humor as antidotes to life's worries and hardships. References to "Gloom" and "Greed and Spite" suggest WWI-era anxieties. The text emphasizes that laughter provides spiritual relief—"a jewel that shimmers bright." This is primarily literary content promoting *Judge* magazine's philosophy that satire and humor serve therapeutic social functions during troubled times.

# "Jones Gets His First Ice Bill" This cartoon by Walter de Maris satirizes the shock of receiving an unexpected utility bill. The scene shows a man (Jones) at his doorway confronting what appears to be an ice delivery person or bill collector. Jones exclaims in disbelief: "Great Guns! and only a little while ago I was chopping it off the sidewalk." The joke reflects early 20th-century urban life when ice was a necessity for home refrigeration before electric appliances became standard. The satire targets the absurdity of being charged for ice when it was freely available as a natural resource during winter—people commonly harvested ice from frozen surfaces. The cartoon mocks both the rising costs of utilities and consumers' surprise at commercial charges for what nature provided.

# "A Tunisian Tid-Bit" - Judge Magazine, August 12, 1918 This satirical poem by Harvey Peake mocks Jazz-el-Jazz, the Dey (ruler) of Tunis, through mock-heroic verse. The narrative describes Jazz as a self-aggrandizing official who appointed himself to numerous positions despite being refused legitimate ones. The humor centers on his creation of absurd titles (Chief Buzzer of the Busy Bees, Colonel of the Young Nuts Society) to compensate for his exclusion from real power. The climax involves a rival named Kuttup, excluded from the Sock Knitters' Sodality, who exacts revenge by literally "swinging against his turban"—a physical comeuppance for Jazz's pretension. The cartoon satirizes autocratic self-importance and petty bureaucratic rivalries, likely reflecting American attitudes toward North African colonial figures during WWI.

# Analysis of Judge Magazine Page This page contains three distinct pieces: 1. **"In the Defense of Love"** by I.V. Bothair: An essay satirizing romantic sentimentality by mocking the proverb "Love is blind." It humorously argues that love cannot be truly blind since it requires sight to appreciate beauty—using absurd examples like declaring love for a two-footed fish. 2. **Two cartoon illustrations** by Norman Anthony and Charles Saxton: The first shows someone at a window; the second depicts a "Tennis Term—Forty, Love!" scene with figures playing tennis or in domestic interaction. These appear to be visual gags complementing the romantic theme. 3. **"The Higher Life"** by Douglas Malloch: A poem satirizing middle-class social climbing—mocking society's constant striving for "higher" status, better possessions, and "higher" social circles rather than genuine contentment. The page satirizes both romantic delusions and materialistic status-seeking in early 20th-century American culture.

# Analysis of Judge Magazine Page This page contains multiple unrelated humor pieces typical of the era: **Main Cartoon ("They Took Him at His Word")**: A famous humorist lecturing at Bryn Mawr College jokingly asks skeptics to "stand on their heads." When the third-year gym class literally complies en masse, he flees in panic. The joke: he fears his wife will learn he was surrounded by women in inverted positions showing their legs—potentially scandalous given early 20th-century propriety standards around women's ankles and the "hatpin" violence referenced elsewhere on the page. **Other Jokes**: Brief humor pieces on unrelated topics—insurance restrictions, women's voting improvements, and fashion affectations. **Historical Context**: The hatpin reference and ankle-gazing anxiety reflect genuine 1910s-era anxieties about changing gender dynamics, women's athletics (gym classes), and emerging feminism. The humor trades on marital suspicion and Victorian-era modesty norms now largely obsolete.

# Judge Magazine Satire Page Analysis This page from *Judge* contains multiple WWI-era humor pieces satirizing American home-front anxieties: **"When He Passed On"** jokes about marriage dynamics—a man considers his wife's seaside vacation a stroke of luck, inverting traditional sentimentality about spousal separation. **"Up-to-date Demands"** mocks younger generations' entitlement, contrasting an obese father's modest expectations with his son's greedy demands. **"Literal Interpretations"** plays on business jargon scaled absurdly large (two men suspended in a scale doing paperwork). **"Always the Way"** uses a hen unable to find eggs to satirize women's domestic forgetfulness. **"A Famous Battle-Ground"** and **"Preparedness"** reference wartime anxieties—kitchens as metaphorical battlegrounds and marriage eligibility tied to military service. **"Guess Who"** features Mars (god of war) and the Devil arguing over war's origin—dark satire suggesting war's demonic nature or that blame is irrelevant. **"Unreturning"** comments on wartime inflation: money no longer circulates home as it did pre-war. The overall tone reflects American anxieties about marriage, youth, gender roles, and economic disruption during WWI.

# Analysis of Judge Magazine Page **"The Dark That Failed"** is a humorous short story about a young couple on a commuter train hoping to steal a kiss in tunnel darkness. The narrator, an experienced commuter, anticipates their plan and watches as they prepare for the larger tunnel under the river. However, when the train enters the tunnel, it's immediately lit by electric lights, thwarting their romantic moment—hence "the dark that failed." **"Out of the Mouths of Babes"** is a joke about a child catching their mother in hypocritical behavior regarding etiquette. **"Big Men"** is an allegorical fable satirizing a society's approach to dealing with an overabundance of large/tall men. Rather than competing fairly, the people vote them pensions and remove obstacles—essentially enabling idleness. This leads to their eventual disappearance. The satire likely critiques how societies coddle or subsidize certain groups, resulting in their decline rather than improvement. The page also includes a WWI-era cartoon showing American and German soldiers at lunch, and a joke about women in wartime employment.

# Analysis: "The Fulfillment of a Hunch" This page presents a short story by Charles Alden Byrnes illustrated with two cartoons by different artists. **The Story:** A writer experiences an inexplicable premonition throughout the day—sensing a woman's presence, hearing footsteps, feeling watched. He dismisses belief in intuition and telepathy as superstitious, yet the feeling persists and terrifies him. His "hunch" is fulfilled when his landlady arrives demanding overdue rent and refusing negotiation. He must move without his trunk. **The Satire:** The piece gently mocks masculine rationality and skepticism about "women's intuition." The narrator's smugness about not believing in telepathy or thought-transference contrasts with his actual experience of genuine premonition—suggesting such intuitions have practical validity despite scientific dismissal. **The Cartoons:** "The Harmoniac" (top) shows a mystical female figure. "Ambition" (bottom) depicts a small dog watching a man in a hat lying prone on the ground—likely illustrating the gap between ambition and reality, complementing the story's theme of unfulfilled expectations.

# Analysis of "The Way of the Wayfaring Woman" This story-cartoon satirizes the self-absorbed complaining of middle-class traveling women of the era. The protagonist's frustration over missing a train berth exposes how she blames everyone—the shop girl (slow with change), her sister (delaying her with dessert), the ticket agent—rather than accepting responsibility for her own poor planning and tardiness. The humor lies in her escalating rationalizations: she didn't *need* the dessert or the store item, yet delays for them anyway, then resents the consequences. The title's "wayfaring woman" suggests restless, rootless modern femininity, while her entitled demands on service workers (the ticket agent's indifference is pointedly noted) and victim mentality represent satire of upper-middle-class female behavior. The separate cartoon caption at bottom appears unrelated to this story.

# Analysis of Judge Magazine Page This page contains three distinct pieces of 1910s-era American social commentary: **"Plan Submitted for the Air Defense of Our Seaboard Towns"** (left): A satirical architectural diagram by Rea Irvin depicting a hospital converted into a weapons factory during World War I, with labeled sections for bomb-proof chambers, shell-manufacturing ovens, and gun operation. This reflects anxieties about coastal defense and industrial mobilization. **"The Policeman"** (right, poem): Gordon Caruth's verse humorously explores a child's observation that a park policeman behaves differently depending on whether the child's mother or nurse accompanies them—he's playful with the nurse present but avoids the child when the mother appears. The joke satirizes adult hypocrisy and selective behavior. **"The Female Reserve Corps"** (bottom): A prose piece by E.R.E. describing how an office building's male elevator operators are replaced by an Irish woman. The story suggests economic displacement of working-class men, likely reflecting post-WWI labor shifts when women entered traditionally male jobs. All three pieces use satire to comment on social change, wartime concerns, and gender/class dynamics of the era.

# Judge Magazine Page Analysis **Top Cartoon (Gordon Grant):** A street-corner scene where a policeman directs a motorist to "125th Street" instead of their requested destination, mentioning "The Marines have just advanced a couple of miles." This is WWI-era satire playing on military advancement language—applied absurdly to New York City geography. **"The Human Dud" (Tom P. Morgan):** A satirical story comparing a worthless person to military terminology. Professor Pate explains that a "dud" is an artillery shell that fails to explode despite appearing functional. Old Dorsey Dudgeon applies this to his nephew Perry Petty—a well-raised, educated young man who "looked the real thing" but ultimately accomplished nothing and "simply dropped flat," becoming a candidate for legislature. The satire mocks both underwhelming individuals and politicians. **"Meeting Competition" (Orus C. Little):** Business advice column about recognizing and managing competitors, advocating aggressive but polite tactics—essentially "beat them at their own game." The page reflects WWI-era concerns and commercial competition during that period.