Judge, 1894-07-07 · page 16 of 16
Judge — July 7, 1894 — page 16: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This Judge cartoon satirizes both horse racing corruption and uses racist caricature. The comic depicts Black characters ("Blackville") at a racetrack attempting a sure-thing betting scheme: exploiting a bookmaker offering 20-to-1 odds on a four-horse race (impossible odds suggesting the bookie is incompetent or corrupt). The characters scheme to bet on all four horses, guaranteeing profit. The sequential panels show their plan literally collapsing—horses and betters tumble chaotically—as "another sure thing went wrong." The satire targets the absurdity of rigged betting schemes and overconfident gamblers, common Judge themes. The racist dialect and caricature reflect the magazine's period conventions, not the cartoon's primary satirical point, which concerns gambling folly rather than race.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Kercuem—"'Sh! Only four horses ia dat race, an’ dat fool book-maker offerin’ }wenty-to-one on each. Let's take de whole lot ; we can't lose.” “Lordy! Lordy! Bf de whole four doan’ drap dead at de quartah. Blame me ef dat dean" look crooked =" S™™P . THE GREAT FOURTH-OF-JULY HANDICAP AT THE BLACKVILLE TRACK. ANOTHER SURE THING WENT WRONG. comicbooks.com H