n172 Old Judge Pretzels "Getzien/Cetzein" Joke Card

[Joe_G.]

Cyseymour, I’m 99% sure you are just trying to yank my chain but many others on the forum probably don’t realize you are kidding. For their benefit, I’ll correct you. Very few cards, scorecards, and newspapers seemed to be able to spell Getzien’s name correctly, but none of them spelled it with a “C” (at least not his baseball cards). The following is a sampling of the errors:

N172 , N173, N284, N338-2, N403/E223 => Getzein

N29 & N43 => Getzin

Police Gazette => Gatzein

Scrapps => Getzen

It seems only the Detroit Free Press (on occasion) and a handful of scorecards managed to keep it straight. Reason for all the errors may be linked to the way it was pronounced. From the June 13th, 1886 Detroit Free Press:

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Getzien says his name is spelled Getzien and pronounced Getzeen.

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If you feel his N172 cards spell out “Cetzein”, then the cards are apparently issued by “Coodwin and Go.”

I agree that the “C” and “G” can be difficult to decipher on many Old Judge cards and this is why there is debate as to whether the Deacon White portrait is spelled McCREACHERY or McGREACHERY. Lew Lipset, who once owned the card, believed it was/is McGREACHERY. But Cetzein??, and by extension Cibson, Cilks, Cillespie, Cilligan, . . .

The N173 belongs to the Met.