Judge, 1922-09-09 · page 10 of 36
Judge — September 9, 1922 — page 10: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Analysis This is a social satire cartoon drawn by S. Werner. It depicts an elegantly dressed woman speaking to a seated man in what appears to be an upscale interior, with a prominent punch bowl in the foreground. The joke plays on a pun: "thirst families" (suggesting wealthy, prominent families) sounds like "thirst" as in excessive drinking. The humor mocks both upper-class pretension and alcoholism among the wealthy elite. By identifying the drunk boy as "Freddy Vanderwater"—a deliberately pompous, WASP-ish surname—the cartoon suggests that even the most socially prominent families cannot escape the shame of having members with drinking problems. It's satirizing the contradiction between genteel respectability and actual behavior among the leisure class.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
OR & “Who was that boy that drank so much?” “Freddy Vanderwater. He comes from one of our thirst families!”