Judge — February 5, 1921 — page 4: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# Analysis This illustration by E.N. Clark depicts a traffic jam during winter conditions. The caption reads "Many are stalled and few are frozen," a dark joke about vehicles stuck on an icy or snow-covered road. The cartoon satirizes the early automobile era's vulnerability to weather. Multiple cars are stranded on a hillside road, with people standing around them in various states of distress or resignation. Some figures appear to be pushing or attempting to free their vehicles, while others have abandoned theirs. The humor is grim: while many cars are immobilized by ice, at least nobody has literally frozen to death—yet. It mocks both the unreliability of early automobiles in winter and the optimism (or foolishness) of drivers attempting travel in harsh conditions. This likely dates from the 1920s-30s, when cars were becoming common but winter driving remained genuinely hazardous.