Judge, 1923-09-22 · page 15 of 36
Judge — September 22, 1923 — page 15: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains two separate humorous pieces from Judge magazine: **"Discretion!" (main cartoon)**: A joke about a wife's priorities during a lightning storm. The humor relies on a stereotype about wives being materialistic—the punchline suggests the wife's concern for shopping is so strong that even lightning "intelligently" exits through the nearest window to escape her. The illustration by Edna Ditzler shows two women in an interior scene, reinforcing the domestic setting. **"Willy" (bottom text)**: A brief joke about young men ("drug store cowboys"—loiterers who hung around drugstores as social gathering spots). The humor comes from the absurd notion that consuming multiple ice cream sodas in one sitting constitutes impressive leadership or achievement worthy of respect. Both pieces reflect early 20th-century social attitudes: satirizing women's shopping habits and mocking idle youth culture. The jokes are gentle, relying on exaggeration rather than sharp political commentary.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Drawn by EpNA Ditzer, Discretion! by William Sanford W: HAD a terrible thunderstorm to- . My wife was seated in the parlor with two windows each slightly open to let in some air. The lightning came in one window, played around a “Do you need anything, Betty?” “Not a thing!” “Neither do I. Let’s go shopping!” second or two, broke a vase on the center table, and darted out the other window, which was the nearest to the broken vase. If you knew my wife you would under- stand why the lightning took the nearest window to get out, after breaking the vase. 13 Willy—Clarence is justly entitled to the leadership of the drug store cowboys Margot—How did he win his spurs? “He hopped on his favorite mount this afternoon and stuck to it till he con- sumed four ice cream sodas, an orange phosphate and three assorted sundacs.” comicbooks.com