Judge — July 16, 1921

# Analysis This page is primarily **advertising**, not editorial content or satire. It promotes the July issue of *Film Fun*, a humor magazine devoted to motion pictures. The illustration shows a young man ("Young Brown") reading a copy of *Film Fun* while seated at a desk. The advertisement's humor derives from a gentle joke: Brown is so absorbed in the magazine's comedic film content that he applauds the pictures printed on its pages—treating static illustrations as if they were moving pictures on a screen. The ad emphasizes *Film Fun*'s appeal: 67 photographs and drawings of screen stars, plus 250 articles, stories, poems, and jokes. It was edited by someone who "made Judge so successful," suggesting editorial credibility and cross-magazine promotion.

# "The Challenge" — Judge Magazine, July 16, 1921 This cartoon by Penry Barlow depicts a small dog confronting a circus wagon bearing large cat imagery. The title "The Challenge" suggests a David-versus-Goliath confrontation. The specific meaning is unclear without additional context from the 1921 issue. However, the circus setting and animal imagery likely represent competing commercial or political entities—possibly involving the Ringling Bros. circus (a dominant force in American entertainment) versus a smaller rival enterprise. The dog could symbolize an underdog challenger or upstart competitor. The cartoon satirizes the disparity in power or resources between the antagonists, with the small dog's bold stance against the much larger, established operation being presented as either brave or foolhardy—a common Judge magazine theme about American business competition and ambition.

# Analysis of "That 'Running-Away-from-Home' Feeling" This illustration by W.G. Fabb depicts a fantastical cityscape suspended in clouds above a earthly landscape. The composition contrasts an idealized, impossibly grand architecture (appearing Eastern European or Russian in style, with onion domes and ornate spires) against a grounded reality below with cypress trees framing a figure gazing upward. The title suggests the satire concerns escapist fantasy—the allure of imagining oneself elsewhere. The elaborate dream-city represents an idealized place one wishes to flee toward, while the solitary observer below represents the reality-bound dreamer. This likely critiques either wanderlust, immigration yearnings, or romantic notions of distant lands during the early 20th century period.

# Analysis of Judge Magazine Page The top cartoon, drawn by Hamilton Williams, depicts a street scene where a well-dressed visitor encounters a homeless man. The visitor offers money ("I'll gladly take a chance on your Hooch'ry m' calit!"), while the poor man claims to have "stuff" to sell. This appears to satirize Prohibition-era illegal alcohol dealing—the casual way even respectable citizens engaged in obtaining bootleg liquor. The remainder of the page consists of Stephen Leacock's humorous essay "My Hotel Breakfast," discussing the mundane experience of ordering breakfast in hotel dining rooms, with accompanying illustration by H. Fisher. The content is primarily literary rather than political satire.

# Analysis of Judge Magazine Page This page contains three separate humorous short stories with illustrations, typical of Judge's satirical format. **"Three Men and a Hat"** depicts a comedic dispute between men of different heights arguing over hat ownership, each claiming their name is inside the band. The joke plays on social pretension and the absurdity of identical claims. **"Solomon"** satirizes a wise man celebrated for his thousand wives and marital advice, yet who avoids using his own wisdom in practice—a commentary on hypocrisy and the gap between preached virtue and lived experience. The other pieces ("Salt in the Sugar-Bowl," "A Weigh with It," "Hard Stuff") are brief comic verses or definitions with minimal illustrations, offering wordplay and social observation typical of Judge's lighter content.

# Judge Magazine Page Analysis This page contains two satirical pieces reflecting early 20th-century concerns: **"The Difference"** is a poem mocking wealthy investors' emotional attachment to financial instruments—stocks and bonds—when profitable, but their distress when dividends are "cut." The satire targets the shallow materialism of the wealthy class and their dramatic overreaction to financial losses. **"The First Proposal"** humorously chronicles a young woman named Gertrude's dating years, where multiple suitors court her without proposing until Norman Adams finally does. The joke satirizes contemporary courtship rituals and the social expectation that men must propose, while women play coy by refusing (whether proposals actually occur or not). The cartoon below depicts a stalled car and an angry bull, captioned as "very accommodating," which appears to be physical comedy about automotive mishaps—likely satirizing early automobiles' unreliability and the chaos they caused. **"Indirect Costliness"** is a brief joke about how a lost necklace's replacement cost pales beside the medical expense of treating the owner's resulting stress-induced stomach problems—dark humor about psychosomatic illness among the wealthy.

# Analysis of Judge Magazine Page This page contains three distinct pieces of satirical content: **"Reducing"** mocks the obsession with weight loss among women of the era. The article humorously catalogs absurd dieting methods—excessive hot water, chiropractors, electric toasters, starvation—while portraying women as desperate and gullible. It satirizes how women congregate in "reducing grounds" (clubs/societies) to share fad remedies, manifesting "exuberance" over losing mere pounds. **"Rehearsing the Latest Revue"** jokes that the most "sensational" theatrical entrance would be showing girls *fully clothed*—implying contemporary revues relied on scantily-clad performers rather than genuine talent or production value. **"Ode to an Oyster"** is a sentimental poem praising oysters' silence and discretion, implicitly contrasting them with gossipy, letter-writing humans who create their own misery through loose tongues. The cartoon by S. DeLevante (bottom) illustrates the revue joke visually through sequential panels showing a theatrical entrance scenario.

# Judge Magazine Page Analysis The top cartoon by John Coxachon satirizes the used-car market. A slick dealer pressures a customer into buying a decrepit vehicle with 27,000 miles, claiming it's "good as new." The humor targets deceptive automotive salesmen who exploit buyers with dubious claims—a timeless con that was apparently already well-established by this publication's era. The remaining pieces are humorous prose sketches unrelated to each other: - "Upward Trend in Fashion" mocks how women's hemlines have risen, exposing knees and legs—scandalous by earlier Victorian standards referenced in the parody of Stevenson's poem. - "The Impossible" jokes about women never stopping their errands. - "Not Always" uses a Japanese typhoid patient's recovery after eating chop suey to satirize doctors' faulty logic: they credit the meal when it succeeds, blame it when it fails. - "Thoughts" distinguishes pensiveness from expensiveness through a dad-joke pun about thinking versus acting.

# Explanation for Modern Readers This cartoon satirizes **James McNeill Whistler**, the famous 19th-century American painter and notorious socialite known for his wit, arrogance, and combative personality. The six panels humorously depict what allegedly happened whenever Whistler attended a dinner party: 1. **Unusual Behavior** - He acts strangely among guests 2. **A Retort Discourteous** - He insults his hosts 3. **The Destructive Criticism** - He mocks artwork on the walls 4. **A Literary Incident** - He attacks someone's book 5. **Unsatisfactory Service** - He berates the wait staff 6. **The Triumphant Departure** - He leaves victoriously The satire mocks Whistler's legendary rudeness and artistic arrogance. The cartoon suggests he was such a difficult guest that his attendance guaranteed social chaos. Whistler was famously litigious and sharp-tongued; this piece plays on his real reputation for feuds and cutting remarks, making him a perfect subject for Judge magazine's satirical humor.

# "He's the Only Barber Who Can Cut My Hair" This satirical story mocks obsessive consumer loyalty and misplaced priorities. A prosperous businessman has systematically ruined himself—traveling constantly across the globe (Australia, San Francisco, Japan, Philadelphia) for haircuts from one barber named Andrew on Fortieth Street, New York. The joke is the absurd inversion of values: he sacrifices his business, fortune, and respectability for perfect hair maintenance. By the story's end, he's impoverished and begging on the library steps—yet still emphasizing his "perfect haircut" to justify his decisions. This satirizes Gilded Age commercialism and the American obsession with appearance and brand loyalty, suggesting how trivial consumer choices can mask serious self-destruction. The ragged clothes versus pristine hair visually embodies the satire's point: misplaced vanity.

# Analysis of Judge Magazine Page This page contains several satirical pieces typical of early-20th-century Judge magazine: **"A New Species"** satirizes psychology's growing prominence, mocking the new field of "abnormal psychology" by suggesting we need psychologists to analyze the psychologists themselves—implying the discipline is itself abnormal or pretentious. **"You Never Can Tell"** is a humorous short story playing on assumptions: readers expect a young woman being followed by men to have a romantic adventure, but the punchline reveals her "date" is actually her mother, subverting expectations of modern courtship. **The cartoon at bottom** shows Edison-style bugs posing riddle-questions (nonsensical logic puzzles like "how many itches in a mosquito?") to job-seekers, mocking both absurd interview questions and the struggling job market. Other brief items include gentle mockery of clergy priorities (golf-loving rectors) and marital mishaps, standard light humor fare for the publication.

# "The Martyr" by Walt Mason This 1920s-era satirical story, illustrated by Ralph Barton, critiques the absurd proliferation of laws and petty enforcement that ensnared ordinary citizens. The protagonist describes a cascade of legal troubles: speeding violations, parking infractions, and—most tellingly—arrest for homebrewing ("a pint of hops"), clearly referencing Prohibition. The cartoon's caption—"Justice Is a Hollow Wheeze, a Dismal Joke that's on the Bum"—frames the central satire: Justice (depicted as a blindfolded female figure) is portrayed as corrupt or incompetent. The figure on the left appears to represent a lawbreaker or common man being squeezed or punished. The narrator, claiming to be a law-abiding citizen paying taxes and striving for virtue, finds himself repeatedly arrested and fined, eventually imprisoned for nine years for "breaking jail." The piece mocks both excessive criminalization and the irony that even attempts to escape unjust punishment result in harsher sentences—suggesting the legal system itself is the true injustice.