Judge, 1919-09-20 · page 9 of 36
Judge — September 20, 1919 — page 9: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Analysis of Judge Magazine Page This page contains a satirical story-illustration titled "Stalking Big Game" (drawn by Cesare Siva) depicting a heavenly bureaucratic encounter, plus three separate comic vignettes below. **Main Illustration**: A traveler arrives at heaven's gate where St. Peter demands endless "red tape"—bureaucratic paperwork—before entry. The satire mocks excessive governmental or institutional bureaucracy that creates endless obstacles. A conductor's Red Cross waste adds to the pile, suggesting wartime or organizational inefficiency. **The Three Jokes**: 1. **Prohibition Kansas**: Citizens claim their town is "dry" (alcohol-free) because they "drank it dry"—mocking the hypocrisy of Prohibition-era enforcement. 2. **Paris Warning**: A man warns a woman not to eat free lunch before a fancy dinner, sarcastically playing on transatlantic travel naiveté. 3. **Education Paradox**: A woman abandons dancing until clergy condemn it, then suddenly finds it appealing because it's deemed "wicked"—satirizing how prohibition increases desire. The page's theme: institutional absurdity, hypocrisy, and human nature's contrarian impulses.
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Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
The door slid back and he stepped out on a platform that ran beside a wall, in the center of which was a gate, with a ticket-chopping de- vice. The face of the guard was familiar. The galleries of Europe are full of his portraits. It was St. Peter. The clevator lady thrust into the traveler's hands her manu- script, which was instantly re- vealed in its true character—red tape. There were miles of it, and other miles that the conductor had written were added, and further screeds attached, including his own Red Cross waste, till the traveler saw the whole atmosphere filled with a writhing, interminable rib- bon of red tape; and St. Peter was saying: “Put your ticket in the box. One end was thrust in and the traveler started to go in at the gate as the chopper began to chop, but the Saint held him back “Not till this is all chopped,” he said calmly. “Then wha eler. “Why, then,” said the “T must write a book about it and from his nighty he pulled a batch of blanks. Just then a man with a banded > thrust his head in at the door and -houted: “Grand Central—all out!” ” asked the trav- In Prohibition Kansas I am_ in- thoroughly Temperance Lecture formed that this town “dry.” Is it true? Citizen—Vep—that’s so. Not a drop in it. Temperance Lecturer (beamingly)— Do tell me how you good citizens ac- complished it. Citizen—We drank it dry. Warning to Flighty Ones “[’'m going to give you the finest dinner in Paris tomorrow you ever tasted. if you'll meet me there. But I want you to promise me one thing.” “What's that?” “Don’t spoil your appetite by eating a free lunch at the Azores.” “Education Lois—I thought you had become rather tired of dancing. Dorothy—1 had. But I've been reading what the clergymen have been saying against it, and I had no idea how delightfully wicked it is. Drawn by Cavene Sarva Statxinc Bic Game lcomicbooks-com