Judge — October 30, 1920 — page 3: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# Judge Magazine, October 30, 1920 This cartoon satirizes spiritualism and reincarnation beliefs that were popular in the early 20th century. A woman sits at her vanity while a man (labeled "Mr. Crommie") stands nearby. The dialogue mocks the spiritualist notion that one might be reincarnated as something different in an afterlife. The joke hinges on the woman's flippant response: she wishes she could become "the transmitter on your telephone"—suggesting she wants to literally be inside the telephone so she can monitor her male companion's conversations. This reflects period anxieties about relationship trust and control, while simultaneously ridiculing both spiritualism and the telephone as technologies that intrude on privacy. The cartoon illustrates 1920s skepticism toward supernatural beliefs.