Judge — December 18, 1920

# Analysis This page is **primarily a Camel cigarette advertisement**, not satire. The dominant content features a stylized camel's head in a dotted/stippled art style alongside a Camel cigarette package, with large "Camel CIGARETTES" branding at bottom. The ad copy emphasizes product qualities: "Unequalled quality," a "blend of choice Turkish and choice Domestic tobaccos," and claims Camels "never tire your taste" even with liberal smoking. There is **no apparent political cartoon or satire** on this page. The "Judge" magazine masthead suggests this ran in that satirical publication, but the content itself is straightforward commercial advertising—possibly humorous only in its earnest health/quality claims by modern standards, given what we now know about cigarette dangers.

# Analysis of Judge Magazine, December 18, 1920 This illustration by Walter De Maris depicts a domestic financial dispute. A seated man in formal attire (appearing distressed or confrontational) addresses a standing woman, with two other men observing in the background. The dialogue reveals the satire's point: the man claims he's "keeping money troubles from" the woman, yet she responds that she wouldn't "have money troubles" if she could keep things from him—implying she'd hide her spending habits. This reflects post-WWI anxieties about marriage, gender roles, and household finances during economic uncertainty. The cartoon satirizes the tension between spouses over money management, with the woman's retort suggesting wives felt controlled or judged regarding their financial independence and discretionary spending.

This appears to be a humorous nine-panel comic strip showing a man in various states of physical distress and exaggerated poses. The captions suggest satirical explanations for his behavior: 1. A member of a secret society practicing ritualistic signs 2. A movie actor rehearsing dramatic movements 3. A citizen receiving good news 4. An ex-sailor refreshing his "wig-wag" system (maritime signaling) 5. An elocutionist practicing recitation 6. Someone stung by a bee 7. Engaging in "regular physical exercise" 8. Simply "plain crazy" 9. A final panel where "this explains everything" The satire appears to mock various social affectations and explanations people might offer for eccentric public behavior—suggesting that regardless of the excuse given, the man is simply acting absurdly. It's gentle social commentary on pretentiousness and the human tendency to rationalize odd conduct.

# "The Child Composer" by Fairfax Downey This article discusses child prodigies in music composition—a phenomenon the author notes is rare compared to child performers. The piece references William Platt in the *British Journal of Psychology* and mentions that boys have occasionally composed original music. The illustration titled "Billy's One Ambition" (drawn by F. D. Joanson) depicts a child conducting or wielding a baton like a weapon against a kite. The cartoon appears to humorously contrast a child's musical aspirations with childish play—suggesting the gap between serious musical composition and children's actual interests and capabilities. The article explores why child composers are uncommon despite thousands of dollars being earned by child performers, using the author's own son's brief musical experiments as an example of childhood's fleeting creative moments.

# Analysis This Judge magazine page contains three distinct pieces: 1. **Top illustration** (by G.R. Lynwood): Shows an adult and child on a street, captioned "I WANTS THANK YE, MISSIS, FER THIS APPLE YE JUST GAVE PERCY." The accompanying text describes a man's transformative musical experience after hearing his son sing—apparently badly—which inspired him to create a symphony. The satire mocks both pretentious music criticism and parents' tendency to overvalue their children's talents. 2. **"Signers" article** (by Everett Campbell Hall): A brief story about a pompous man bragging about ancestors who signed the Declaration of Independence, countered by a Jewish traveler's reference to the Ten Commandments. The satire targets ethnic prejudice and historical one-upmanship. 3. **Comic strip** (by Paul Hales, titled "Domestic Movies: What Every Parent Knows"): Depicts a family frantically rushing to get dressed and leave, showing the chaos of parental life—likely satirizing the gap between idealized domesticity and actual family scramble.

# Judge Magazine Page Analysis This page contains two separate humorous essays about Christmas, typical of Judge magazine's satirical approach. **"Christmas Is a Good Idea"** by Thomas M. Farguhax is a sentimental piece celebrating how Christmas temporarily transforms society—making poor people happy, rich people humble, and uniting everyone in brotherly feeling. The satire is gentle: it mocks the idealism of the season while acknowledging its genuine appeal. The illustration shows two hunters with dogs, with dialogue about calling a dog—likely illustrating the common folk participating in Christmas festivities. **"Why I Am Glad"** by Katharine Haviland Taylor employs class-based humor. The narrator lists the predictable, repetitive gifts she'll receive (writing supplies, desk items), then contrasts this with a plumber's simpler gifts (wrenches, washers). The joke: she considers herself fortunate because at least she *knows* what to expect, whereas the plumber receives more practical, useful items—inverting typical assumptions about wealth and satisfaction. Both pieces reflect early 20th-century American attitudes about class, consumption, and holiday traditions.

# Analysis of Judge Magazine Page This page contains three distinct pieces of early 20th-century satirical humor: **"The Judgment of the Mixed"** satirizes jury deliberation, where jurors vote based on everything *except* evidence. Mrs. O'Grady stands trial for assaulting her husband, but jurors acquit her based on irrelevant factors: her attractiveness, the hope of shaking her hand, sympathy for wives in bad marriages, family connections, and the lawyer's appeal. Only one juror votes to convict—based solely on spelling ability, not guilt. The satire mocks how juries ignore judicial instructions to follow the law. **"Altogether Too Much"** jokes about artists' labor organizing: models now demand payment per square inch rather than hourly rates—an absurd pricing scheme suggesting the Models' Union is overreaching and pricing out struggling artists. **"A Ballad Before Christmas"** is a humorous poem about gift-giving anxiety during the holidays, with the repeated refrain "Annette is knitting me a tie!"—suggesting an unwanted, inevitable gift. The page reflects Progressive-era skepticism about justice system reliability and labor disputes.

# "Second Avenue Magic" Analysis This story satirizes **illicit alcohol sales during Prohibition**. The "magician" is a bootlegger operating from a cigar store front on Second Avenue in New York City. When the narrator asks for the time, the magician responds with whiskey brand names ("Green River," "Dewar's," etc.), a coded language for purchasing contraband liquor. The elaborate plot—where the narrator unknowingly attracts a Spanish girl while making nightly purchases, only to be confronted by her protective father—is humorous misdirection. The real joke: the narrator thinks he's in romantic/mortal danger, but the story simply illustrates how openly Prohibition bootlegging operated in plain sight, with customers making regular visits to corner stores under thin pretenses. The second item, "Taking No Chances," is a brief joke about bank runs (likely referencing Depression-era financial panic), where a depositor withdraws funds because the cashier's hat-wearing suggests he's preparing to flee.

# "Bad Breaks" Page Explanation This page from *Judge* magazine features "Bad Breaks"—humorous printing errors and awkward phrasings clipped from newspapers. Readers submitted these comic mistakes for payment ($1 each), with the best winning $5. The humor relies on **unintentional double meanings** created by poor word choice or editing. For example: - A clipping states England's war widows remarry at "$2,000 a month" (likely meant to say "rate"), making it absurdly sound like a commodity price - Another mentions a 7-year-old suing a 59-year-old "for alimony," a nonsensical legal claim - A wedding announcement inexplicably lists "the Delaware and Hudson Railroad" among gift recipients These aren't intentional satire but rather *accidental* comedy—embarrassing errors from real publications that reveal sloppy editing, ambiguous phrasing, or malapropisms. The "Bad Break" concept mocks careless journalism while entertaining readers through their bewilderment at how such errors reached print.

# Judge Magazine Page Analysis This is a humor column compiling short, absurdist news items from various newspapers. The recurring joke structure involves lengthy newspaper quotations that build mundane expectations, then deliver punchlines through comedic juxtaposition or exaggeration. Examples include: a man described as extraordinarily tiny (six feet three inches, weighing over 20 pounds—an impossible contradiction) delivering mail; a reverend with implausibly long tenure (225 years); a banker trapped in his own safe; and a 75-year-old widow taking a 12,000-mile car trip. The bottom image appears to show a figure in elaborate historical dress, captioned as depicting "still familiar figures in politics, literature, art and the stage." The satire mocks both the absurdities newspapers actually published and the pretentious language in which editors reported trivial social events—capturing the surrealism of early 20th-century American journalism.

# "The Sensitive Gentleman and the Whistling Boy" This single-panel comic strip (12 frames) depicts a confrontation between a well-dressed, portly gentleman with a cane and a small boy. The gentleman appears increasingly agitated by the boy's whistling—indicated by "b" and "b b b" sound-effect marks throughout the sequence. The satire mocks refined, sensitive masculinity: the gentleman's exaggerated reactions to minor annoyance contrast sharply with his pretense of gentlemanly composure. By the final panels, his composure completely crumbles as he chases the boy in frustration. The joke targets affected propriety and the gap between social pretense and actual behavior—a common Judge magazine theme. The "sensitive gentleman" cannot maintain his dignified facade when provoked by something as trivial as a child's whistling.

# "The Killjoys" by Walt Mason This is a humorous story-poem satirizing self-righteous moralists who constantly criticize others' innocent pleasures. The illustration shows a man relaxing outdoors reading a novel while being pestered by a judgmental figure. The narrator describes repeatedly encountering preachy "killjoys" who condemn his smoking, novel-reading, and eating meat—claiming these habits lead to moral ruin. Each time one appears with sanctimonious warnings, the exasperated narrator eliminates him (feeds him to sharks, hangs him from a tree), only to have another replace him immediately. The satire targets 1910s-era moral crusaders and puritanical reformers who saw popular entertainments (detective fiction, tobacco, meat consumption) as gateways to crime and sin. Mason mocks their doom-saying by showing how absurdly pervasive and tedious such people are, and how their warnings ring hollow to anyone simply trying to enjoy life's modest pleasures. The joke: moralists are themselves the real nuisance to society.