Judge, 1917-09-22 · page 7 of 28
Judge — September 22, 1917 — page 7: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This cartoon satirizes the editorial standards of *Judge* magazine itself. Mr. Petcock (likely a character representing someone demonstrating lighting) is about to turn on bright lights, presumably to reveal something scandalous or indecent—the kind of content shown at the "Winter Garden" (a real New York theatre known for risqué entertainment). An authority figure interrupts, insisting *Judge* maintain family-friendly propriety since it reaches hundreds of thousands of American homes weekly. The humor is self-referential: *Judge* uses its own editorial caution as the punchline, ironically advertising its respectability while implying the unseen "improper" content. It's a meta-joke about the magazine's self-imposed moral standards.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
“As you see, it’s reasonably bright, even with the dimmers on. Now, I'll turn it on full and——" “Please go no further, Mr. Petcock. This is not the Winter Garden. We must remember that Juoce is a clean, family paper, going each week into hundreds of thousands of American homes.”