Judge — July 28, 1923 — page 6: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# Cartoon Analysis This Judge magazine cartoon satirizes the estate of the late William Sniffer McGee. The caricatured figure sits amid boxes labeled "DRY GIN," holding a bottle—depicted as someone about to "pour it in the sink." The joke targets McGee's son Lynn, who inherited twenty cases of gin. The cartoon suggests this represents a "bootlegacy"—a play on "legacy" and "bootleg," referring to illegal alcohol during Prohibition. The satire mocks both the inheritance of contraband liquor and the absurdity of the son receiving such an impractical, legally problematic bequest. The cartoon dates to America's Prohibition era (1920-1933), when alcohol possession and distribution were federally banned. The humor derives from this prohibition-era context.