Judge — January 26, 1924 — page 3: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# Analysis of Judge Magazine Page (January 24, 1924) This cartoon depicts a scene titled "MAH JONGG!" with the caption "Percy—'Oh, look at the white dragon!'" The satire targets the 1920s American craze for Mahjong, a Chinese tile game that became wildly popular among American society during this period. The illustration shows well-dressed people gathered around a Mahjong table, with a statue of Lady Liberty presiding above them in the background—a striking juxtaposition suggesting that Americans were distracted by frivolous foreign pastimes rather than attending to civic duties or "American" values. The humor lies in the obsessive fascination with Mahjong among the leisure class, depicted as utterly absorbed in the game while patriotic symbolism literally looms overhead, unheeded.