Judge — May 3, 1924 — page 13: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# Two Satirical Cartoons from Judge Magazine **Top cartoon:** A tourist at a country hotel complains about a bird singing outside their bedroom window. The hotel clerk responds by charging an extra ten dollars "for music." This satirizes rural innkeepers' greed and opportunism—extracting fees for every possible amenity, even natural occurrences beyond their control. It mocks both their penny-pinching entrepreneurship and tourists' tendency to complain about minor inconveniences. **Bottom cartoon:** Titled "If the pedestrian could have one wish," it depicts a man gleefully kicking toy automobiles while dogs attack toy cars. This reflects early 20th-century frustration with automobiles—vehicles that were still relatively new, dangerous, and represented an intrusive modern threat to pedestrians and traditional street life. The cartoon expresses the common person's fantasy of revenge against the automobile age.