Judge, 1895-02-23 · page 16 of 16
Judge — February 23, 1895 — page 16: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This satirical multi-panel comic illustrates how a bank's directors were duped by an embezzling employee. The narrative, told by a bank director, reveals their embarrassing naïveté: they hired a well-dressed "dude" as assistant book-keeper on modest salary ($300/year), yet he somehow afforded his own carriage, a seaside cottage, and frequent trips to the ice-cooler (likely concealing drinking). The directors convinced themselves he was respectable because he attended church and came from "poor but honest parents." When he disappeared, they finally examined his books—finding nothing (he'd stolen everything). The satire targets the directors' gullibility and willful blindness, their class assumptions that church attendance and genteel appearance signified honesty, and their criminal negligence in not auditing accounts. It's a cautionary tale about banking incompetence and misplaced trust.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
We made him assistant book-keeper, and his , - dude dress ought to have set us thinking. : We noticed he visited the ice-cooler often in Malleateoatocsen eae te el the mornings, but we didn't think that out of the Cigarettes sometin He came to On a salary of three hundred a year be came to busioess every morning in a trap of his own, but we never dreamed of looking at his books. “us a mere child, the offspring of poor but honest parents. He went to church every Su: that only good men went to church. It was a matter of pride with our house that a dook-keeper of ours could have a cottage-by-the- sea, WR onK— Ae it Gezstved Coy the directors of our bank), ‘ it that the Chinese met used in this country ‘When he said he was tired aid would like a in dealing with our defaulting book-keepers and fi Deg A ee — when he did not retura we decided to look into matters, and found—notbing at all! Sackett aWheims Ltho Co New Yor’. OUR DEFAULTING BOOK-KEEPER. A DIRECTOR OF OUR BANK TELLS ALL ABOUT HIM. comicbooks.com