Judge — August 23, 1919

# Analysis This page is **primarily a tobacco advertisement**, not satire or political commentary. It advertises Prince Albert pipe and cigarette tobacco, published by R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company of Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The illustration depicts a man with an exaggerated nose wearing a wide-brimmed hat and smoking a pipe. The accompanying text uses playful language to market the product's qualities—claiming it won't bite the tongue, offers pleasant flavor, and comes in attractive packaging with a humidor. The "trick" referenced is simply the product's claimed advantage: Prince Albert tobacco allegedly provides superior smoking comfort compared to competitors. This represents standard early 20th-century advertising hyperbole rather than political satire or social commentary.

# "If We Were Perfectly Frank" This Judge magazine page from August 23, 1919 presents a satirical drawing by F. Forain Lawson depicting a formal dinner party scene. The caption quotes partygoers saying "We're going to beat it. We're bored to death!"—a frank admission of the tedium underlying polite high-society gatherings. The satire targets the artificiality of upper-class social conventions in post-WWI America. Guests dressed formally sit around an elegant table in what appears to be a mansion, yet the humor lies in exposing the disconnect between outward propriety and inner ennui. The joke suggests that wealthy society events are obligatory but genuinely dull—a critique of superficial social rituals masking genuine disinterest and disconnection among attendees.

# Analysis of "Between the Devil and the Deep Sea" This illustration by R.B. Fuller depicts a woman in fashionable Edwardian dress performing a precarious balancing act on a seesaw or plank. She stands with arms raised, holding a parasol, positioned above what appears to be military fortifications and a coastal landscape. The title "Between the Devil and the Deep Sea" is a period idiom meaning caught between two dangerous alternatives with no good options. The cartoon likely satirizes a woman's constrained social position or difficult political circumstances of the era. The provocative costume and theatrical pose suggest commentary on female independence, sexuality, or social expectations. Without additional context, the specific political or social reference remains unclear, though the imagery implies precarious circumstances for women navigating societal constraints.

# Analysis This page features a satirical serial called "Ain't Angie Awful!" about the romantic misadventures of a character named Angela Bish. The illustration shows a bearded man in old-fashioned dress carrying a woman, captioned "The Simple Robe in Which She Fludded." The satire targets prevailing sexual attitudes and romance fiction of the era. The text mocks Angela's romantic escapades—she's been living in a subway, briefly romanced by a slovenly man, then abandoned. The narrator sarcastically celebrates her "change" from the encounter, noting she's now willing to accept any offer, including a position as companion to a wealthy young Frenchwoman. The humor relies on mocking both the character's desperation and period romance tropes. Without identifying specific references, this appears to be general satire of contemporary romance narratives and women's precarious economic situations.

# Analysis of Judge Magazine Page This page contains a serialized story titled "Angie the Awful, the Adventurer of the Gracious Company" (continuing next week). The main illustration shows a woman in what appears to be early 20th-century dress at a bathroom sink or tub, suggesting domestic comedy. The narrative describes a romantic relationship between two characters—a man and "Angela"—involving domestic struggles and reconciliation. The story emphasizes period-appropriate gender dynamics, with references to hairstyles, clothing, and courtship rituals typical of the era. At bottom, there's a short poem titled "Dissipation" about candor in court proceedings. **Note**: This appears to be primarily serialized fiction rather than political satire. The humor derives from domestic situations and character personality rather than social commentary.

# Analysis of This Judge Magazine Page The cartoon depicts a humorous beach scene where a grandmother is being startled by her grandchild's excited report that "This Sailor Says He's Tattooed All Over!" The joke plays on the grandmother's assumed prudishness and shock at such a revelation—a common comedic trope of the era mocking older generations' sensibilities about tattoos and sailors' reputations. Below, the "Egg View News-Notes" section contains mild small-town gossip and humor: two-cent stamps being adopted without public concern, someone wanting to trade his dog, insurance agents being bothersome, and a man ordering strangers from his property thinking they'd wandered into different woods. The page also includes "The Dream Pocket," a sentimental poem personifying a tobacco pouch as a repository of memory and imagination—typical of Judge's literary content balancing satire with whimsy. Overall, this reflects early 20th-century middle-class American humor: mild social commentary, small-town eccentricity, and nostalgic sentimentality.

# Analysis: "Even As You and I" by Rutherford Rennie This story-with-illustrations satirizes the romantic deceptions of modern urban dating in the early 20th century. The narrator asks a beautiful young woman named Marvel—who works as a cloak model at Macy's—to accompany him to a country inn. She declines, claiming another engagement, but offers to break her plans if he has a car. When his car proves broken, she refuses the walk. The joke: the narrator later spots Marvel riding in *that very car* with another man (Jack Howard, the car's owner). The satire mocks women's duplicity and mercenary nature—Marvel's interest shifts instantly based on material advantage (the automobile), exposing her "childish" superficiality despite her grown appearance. The accompanying comic panels reinforce themes of deception and self-interest in modern relationships and social interactions. The overall tone is gently cynical about contemporary courtship and female opportunism.

# "The Uplifter" - Explanation for Modern Readers This is a humorous poem by Walt Mason, illustrated by Ralph Barton, satirizing the "Pollyanna" personality type—what the text calls "Sunny Jims." The cartoon depicts a cheerful, relentlessly optimistic man visiting someone suffering in the heat, insisting their misery has a silver lining. The satire targets forced positivity and toxic cheerfulness. Mason argues that constant optimism is inappropriate and unwelcome during genuine hardship. He distinguishes between *appropriate* optimism (sharing joy with the happy) and *inappropriate* optimism (lecturing the suffering). The "uplifter" who arrives with unsolicited encouragement ("the aches that rack and grind are but punk phantoms") exemplifies social rudeness masquerading as helpfulness. The joke: sometimes people simply need sympathy and permission to suffer, not motivational speeches. The exasperated narrator threatens violence, suggesting how intensely annoying such relentless cheerfulness becomes during real pain.

# Satire Explanation for Modern Readers This page from *Judge* satirizes how rapidly new words enter English vocabulary. The main piece, "Ruperthuggesome," parodies overwrought literary fiction by inserting contemporary political/cultural figures' names as verbs—a humorous critique of how modern language corrupts traditional prose. Examples visible include "senatorlodged," "burleson'd," "bolshevik," and "colonelharvey"—converting names into verbs to create absurd neologisms. Albert Burleson was Postmaster General under Wilson; the reference to "congressional-record country" suggests Prohibition-era government scrutiny. The surrounding short humor pieces mock contemporary social anxieties: a "Non-politic Admission" about doctor's bills, and a joke about incomprehensible three-letter monograms. The satire targets both rapid linguistic change and the pretentiousness of contemporary magazine fiction, suggesting that modern literature and politics have made even plain English incomprehensible.

# "Friday the 13th at Yapp's Crossing" This is a crowded comic scene drawn by John Gruelle depicting chaos and mishaps in a small town street. The illustration shows numerous characters—children, adults, animals, and vehicles—engaged in various comedic disasters: collisions, people falling, items breaking, and general pandemonium. The satire plays on the superstition surrounding Friday the 13th. The cartoonist uses this date as a framework to humorously depict Murphy's Law in action—everything that can go wrong does go wrong simultaneously in this town. Visible storefronts include a drug store and what appears to be a Lewandell business, suggesting this is meant to represent a typical American small town where bad luck strikes indiscriminately across the community. The humor derives from the sheer density of mishaps and the visual gag of universal misfortune on this "unlucky" date.

# Explanation for Modern Readers This is a humorous advice column from *Judge* magazine satirizing post-WWI etiquette for soldiers returning to civilian dining. The headline cartoon (drawn by Calvert Smith) shows a woman controlling a man at a dining table with strings—"The Money-Mill and the Motor"—suggesting women manipulate wealthy men through dining situations. The column itself mocks elaborate dining accessories invented to help awkward diners hide social mishaps: fake fur-trimmed goggles to prevent seeing unappetizing food, asparagus mittens to avoid butter burns, a mechanical "grin maker" device that forces smiles during boring conversation, and a trap door to secretly discard unwanted food. The satire targets both newly wealthy soldiers unfamiliar with refined dining customs and the absurdity of upper-class etiquette itself. It suggests that proper dining isn't about genuine courtesy but theatrical deception—you needn't actually listen to your hostess; just fake attention with a mechanical device. The humor mocks the gap between pretended sophistication and reality.

# Judge Magazine Page Analysis This page contains satirical product advertisements and humorous anecdotes typical of post-WWI American humor. **Top cartoon** (by W.K. Stanmeer): Mocks the League of Nations as incomprehensibly complex. Two men discuss agreeing with someone's remarks about it, with the punchline that one wouldn't let the other "explain it"—suggesting the League's purposes were genuinely baffling to ordinary people. **Middle cartoon** (by Norman Anthony): Shows a couple discussing an ugly decorative object, with the wife suggesting putting it in the guest room—a joke about intentionally displaying eyesores to discourage visitors. **Mock product advertisements**: Parody post-war novelty items (butter nets, hot eyeballs for ice cream headaches, cabaret phones). These satirize both consumer excess and soldiers' recent return from WWI. **Anecdotes**: Include a mild satire on British attitudes toward interracial marriage in China, and a joke about contrarian smoking—someone continuing smoking *because* reformers oppose it. The overall tone reflects 1920s American attitudes: irreverent toward international institutions, mildly xenophobic, and focused on domestic consumer culture and returning soldiers.