Judge, 1925-02-14 · page 9 of 36
Judge — February 14, 1925 — page 9: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Page 7 Commentary This page contains three interconnected satirical cartoons about social pretense and embarrassment. The top cartoon mocks social climbing and phoniness: a man rudely refuses the "Joneses" while covering the mouthpiece, revealing his contempt for people he pretends to befriend. The middle cartoon shows "The Climbers"—social aspirants who felt honored sitting near what they thought were society elites at an event, only to be mortified when a photograph published in newspapers revealed those "social lights" were actually criminals. The bottom cartoon depicts "Slippery Sam Dodger and wife," infamous con artists who had been swindling wealthy Palm Beach guests before their arrest. The irony is sharp: the climbers' social betters were sophisticated thieves. The satire targets 1920s social anxiety, class aspiration, and the gap between appearances and reality—with the added sting that "respectable" society people were literally criminals, making the climbers' embarrassment darkly comic.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
“Hey, Mary! It’s those damn silly Joneses on the phone—they want to come over. Make up an excuse to tell the fools while I hold my hand over the mouthpiece!” The Climbers considered themselves fortunate to be sitting be- hind who they thought were social lights, but they felt differently when the photograph was published in the papers. C187 bade comicbooks.com “Slippery Sam Dodger and wife, famous inter- national crooks, who hare been fleecing the wealthy guests at Palm Beach until their arrest yesterday.”