Judge — April 5, 1924 — page 1: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# "The Daughter of Mah Jongg" — Judge Magazine, April 5, 1924 This cover satirizes the mahjong craze that swept America in the early 1920s. The illustration shows a fashionable woman in loose-fitting pajama-style clothing (reflecting Oriental aesthetics associated with the game) playfully posing with stylized dragon figures. The title "The Daughter of Mah Jongg" treats the game almost as a deity or cultural force spawning a new generation. The joke targets how thoroughly mahjong had infiltrated American society—it was viewed as an exotic foreign import that had become obsessively popular among middle and upper-class players, particularly women. The absurdist imagery suggests the game's perceived grip on American leisure culture was humorously exaggerated. The artist's signature reads "Aymond Thayer."