Judge — October 23, 1920

# Analysis This page is primarily **advertising for Judge magazine's art prints**, not political satire. The content promotes reproductions of Judge's cover illustrations—described as humorous artwork by "the greatest artists of the country"—available for 25 cents each. The four illustrated covers shown feature **domestic humor**: a child in a high chair, a couple in an intimate moment, puppies, and children at play. These represent the magazine's "gospel of cheerfulness." The text emphasizes these prints make ideal wall decorations for homes and leisure spaces. A coupon at bottom allows readers to order prints by mail. **This is vintage advertising**, not political commentary. Judge positioned itself as a purveyor of wholesome, cheerful humor suitable for middle-class households of the early 20th century.

# Analysis of Judge Magazine Page (October 23, 1920) This illustration by William Keep Starrett depicts a domestic scene with a humorous caption about marital conflict. A woman sits calmly in a chair while a man lies on the floor in apparent distress. The dialogue reads: "You mean to say he kissed you in spite of your threatening to scream? What did you do then?" "Oh, I just kept on threatening to scream." The satire targets early 20th-century attitudes about courtship and consent. The joke plays on the era's social convention where women were expected to resist male advances, while the cartoon suggests this woman continued "threatening" despite the man persisting—implying her protests were performative rather than genuine. It reflects period anxieties about changing gender dynamics and dating rituals in the 1920s.

# Analysis This sketch by Ormal Lovell depicts a scene in what appears to be an auto mechanic's shop or garage. The dialogue references two characters—"Mike" and "Biddy"—discussing an automobile repair situation. The humor centers on Mike's unauthorized use of a customer's car, apparently a regular practice ("foive years now and never once took th' machine out widout th' owner's permission"). The joke plays on working-class Irish dialect and the casual dishonesty of mechanics who operated vehicles without explicit permission, then denied it. The satire targets both the mechanic's brazen dishonesty and the gap between what owners assume and what actually happens to their vehicles in shops—a relatable concern for early automobile owners unfamiliar with repair practices. The heavy dialect humor was typical of Judge's working-class comedy of that era.

# Analysis of "The Course of True Love" Page This page contains a short story by Katherine Negley titled "The Course of True Love," illustrated with two cartoons by different artists (Garvey O. Rea and J.K. Baynes). The story satirizes **correspondence courses**—a popular early 20th-century educational phenomenon. William James takes a mail-order efficiency course, hoping to impress his sweetheart Isabel Pearl and secure a promotion. However, his overly rigid, "efficient" approach to romance backfires when Isabel grows impatient with his business-like manner. The satire mocks both the naive faith in self-improvement through mail-order education and how applying mechanical efficiency to human relationships produces absurd, counterproductive results. The cartoons humorously illustrate the tension between modern business methods and traditional courtship.

# Analysis This page contains three separate humor pieces from *Judge* magazine: 1. **"The Music When I Dine"** — A poem by Charles Bechtol satirizing dining preferences, illustrated with a sketch showing well-dressed diners. The humor targets orchestral music at restaurants, with the speaker preferring his companion's conversation to loud instruments. 2. **"Brewing Trouble"** — A brief comedic dialogue about Prohibition enforcement, featuring a drummer in a "Prohibition store" observing suspicious activity (deputies watching a woman buying ingredients for illegal alcohol). This satirizes the absurdity of Prohibition-era policing. 3. **"The Underlying Principal"** — A cartoon showing papers scattered in a principal's office, illustrating a humorous conversation about mistaking a young girl for someone else. The page reflects 1920s social concerns: dining culture, Prohibition enforcement, and school administration.

# "Wynken, Clynken and Drynk" - A Satire on Drinking Culture This page parodies the children's nursery rhyme "Wynken, Blynken, and Nod" to satirize alcohol consumption and intoxication. The poem describes three figures sailing into a fantastical "sea of beer" and "champagne," getting progressively drunk while an old cop (likely representing law enforcement turning a blind eye) encourages them. The final stanza reveals the satirical punchline: "Wynken" and "Clynken" represent preliminary drinking stages, while "Drynk" is "the act itself"—the actual intoxication. The entire voyage is reimagined as a drunken fantasy. The accompanying illustration shows a vintage automobile (not a boat), emphasizing the danger of drunk driving—a modern safety concern of the era. This appears to be Judge magazine's commentary on Prohibition-era drinking culture and the social normalization of intoxication, using familiar children's verse to mock both the behavior and society's tolerance of it.

# Analysis This is a single illustrated cartoon titled "The Steeple-Jack's Foot Slips at Yapp's Crossing." It depicts a bustling village street scene drawn by Johnny Gruelle, showing various shops, buildings, and numerous characters engaged in everyday activities and minor accidents. The cartoon appears to be a humorous depiction of small-town chaos—the "foot slip" of a steeple-jack (a worker who repairs church steeples) at a road crossing triggers a cascade of comedic incidents among villagers. The satire seems to mock the interconnected nature of small-town life, where one person's mishap creates ripple effects affecting everyone nearby. The labeled shops and named characters suggest this may be set in a recurring fictional town, possibly from an ongoing Judge serial or feature. Without additional context about Judge's regular characters or the specific era, the precise satirical targets remain unclear, though the humor centers on small-town accident-prone activity.

# "The Vacant Chair" by Walt Mason This is a nostalgic political poem lamenting William Jennings Bryan's absence from the 1912 presidential race. The illustration shows a towering figure (likely representing Bryan's political absence or legacy) looming over smaller statesmen. The text expresses the author's long admiration for Bryan—a famous Ohio-born orator known for his passionate speeches and multiple presidential campaigns. The poem recalls Bryan's earlier vitality and "gift of tongues," contrasting it with his current non-candidacy. The satire criticizes the crowded 1912 field: Eugene Debs is running from prison, other candidates are scrambling for the presidency, yet Bryan—the once-dominant "uncrowned king"—is notably absent. The joke's punchline: Bryan's wisdom finally shows when he *declines* the Prohibition Party's invitation to run, having learned restraint at last. This reflects Bryan's genuine withdrawal from politics after three failed presidential bids (1896, 1900, 1908).

# "Cassandra Speaks" - 1920 Election Satire This piece satirizes American presidential campaign practices during the 1920 election (likely Harding vs. Cox, as named). "Cassandra Speaks" adopts the mythological figure who prophesied true events nobody believed—here predicting the inevitable circus of campaigning. The satire catalogs expected absurdities: campaign buttons, amateur songs, dubious "oldest voter" photos, spiritualist predictions, and contradictory newspaper interpretations of vague candidate statements. It mocks Cal Coolidge (Vice President) posed as a farmer and Cox shown gardening—attempts to craft populist images. The accompanying cartoons offer lighter humor: two people debating a tragic film's comedy value, and a domestic scene about a bride's dowry. The "Cause for Thanksgiving" joke cynically presents laborers grateful merely to rest rather than work. Overall, the page ridicules campaign-season absurdity and media manipulation—concerns equally relevant today.

# "Can I Leave Her at Home?" - Judge Magazine Satire This article by Rup Rennie satirizes modern urban anxieties through a bachelor's ambivalence about marrying Bernice. The humor lies in the disconnect: Bernice is materially excellent—strong, hardworking, a good cook—yet her "funny ideas" make her unsuitable as a city wife. Her irrational fears about transportation reveal period anxieties. She fears subways (can't see), elevated trains (beams breaking), automobiles (speed), buses (can't remember stops), and streetcars (unpredictable). She even broke a bus fare-collector by forcing her dime too hard. The satire targets both female irrationality and urban modernity's genuine dangers. The suitor concludes he can't marry someone so fearful and impractical for city living, despite her domestic competence—implying urban wives needed to overcome anxiety about new technologies or face confinement at home. The accompanying cartoons and poems on the page provide lighter comic relief about courtship and relationships.

# "Between Covers" - Judge Magazine Analysis This page satirizes celebrity memoir-writing trends in the 1920s, featuring three prominent cultural figures and their published confessions: **James Huneker** (top section): A real music and drama critic whose memoirs are mocked as sensationalized. The satire exaggerates his colorful past—Paris bohemian circles, associations with Walt Whitman—suggesting his self-promotion as a "man of genius" is inflated. The author De Casseres plays along ironically, calling himself an "apocalyptic genius" in Huneker's book. **H.L. Mencken** ("Li'l Hal"): Described as Bryan's "suppressed desires" (referencing William Jennings Bryan, whom Mencken opposed), his memoir is presented as extracted by publishers Knopf, Rascoe, and O'Sullivan. The satire mocks both Mencken's pretensions and the publishing industry's hunger for celebrity revelations. The cartoon's point: American culture was obsessed with famous people's confessions and autobiographies, treated as entertainment rather than genuine insight. The satire ridicules both the subjects' vanity and readers' appetite for celebrity gossip dressed as literature.

# Bad Breaks Page Analysis This page from *Judge* magazine features humorous anecdotes clipped from newspapers, organized under satirical headlines that reframe mundane news items as social commentary. **Key themes:** The satire targets early 20th-century social anxieties: women's suffrage (mocking Japanese women's emancipation movements), immigration ("hyphenates"—foreigners and foreign-born Americans), gender roles (the "modern girl" lacking authentic emotion), and class disparities (a reward for a runaway man and horse, a missing child). **Notable items:** "Bolshevist Politics" references post-Russian Revolution fears. "A Sports Tip" jokes about Senator Harding's golf hobby during his political career. The fashion cartoon at top ("Ready for the Fray") shows socialites preparing for some event. The humor relies on readers catching absurdities in reported facts—a woman scrubbing floors after marriage, a horse with extended lips, a three-year-old missing for years. The magazine amplifies these through ironic headlines to mock contemporary news and society.