Judge, 1922-04-08 · page 19 of 36
Judge — April 8, 1922 — page 19: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This illustration depicts a rural scene where someone is giving confusing directions to visitors in an automobile. The humor targets the difficulty of navigating country roads using verbal instructions—a genuine frustration of the early automobile era. The speaker offers contradictory turns ("right ag'in, then your first left...then left, then right ag'in"), creating an absurdly complicated path that circles back on itself. The casual confidence of the directions-giver ("you're welcome!") contrasts with their obvious unhelpfulness. This satirizes rural hospitality combined with the bewilderment of early motorists trying to travel beyond established roads. The cartoon likely resonated with *Judge*'s urban readership as commentary on the clash between automobile culture and rural America's poor infrastructure and navigation challenges.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Drawn by Hiroesp VANBUREN KLINE. fork of the road, turn right ag’in, then your first left, ht, next left ag’in brings you out where the old school- ht, then left, then right ag’in, and you'll come out on i Miss it—you’re welcome!”