Judge — February 12, 1921 — page 4: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# "The Six Best Cellars" This cartoon satirizes Prohibition-era wine smuggling and bootlegging. The illustration depicts six residential houses arranged on a snowy hillside, each with lines of people queuing outside—appearing to represent illegal alcohol distribution points or speakeasies disguised as homes. Vehicles (likely delivery trucks) are positioned along a winding path, seemingly transporting contraband liquor between the "cellars" (basements where alcohol was illegally stored and sold). The satire mocks how widespread bootlegging operations became during Prohibition (1920-1933), with ordinary houses serving as fronts for illegal alcohol sales. The organized, almost commercial scale shown here—with multiple simultaneous operations and steady customer flow—suggests the cartoon critiques both the absurdity of Prohibition enforcement and the thriving black market it created.