Judge — August 2, 1924 — page 1: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# Judge Magazine Cover, August 2, 1924 This cover illustration satirizes food prices and economic hardship in 1920s America. The scene depicts a butcher shop where a man in an apron serves customers from a sparse counter. The caption reads: "Forty-nine cents worth of round-steak and a penny's worth of dog-meat." The satire targets the high cost of living during this period—customers could afford only minimal quantities of meat, and the joke darkly suggests they're purchasing dog meat mixed with legitimate cuts due to poverty or unscrupulous merchant practices. The butcher's meager display of goods emphasizes scarcity and inflation concerns. This reflects post-WWI economic anxieties that plagued Americans in the early 1920s before the decade's prosperity took hold.