Judge — February 28, 1925 — page 16: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This cartoon satirizes resistance to wartime curfew laws. A large bell labeled "BLOW LAW" hangs from a gallows-like structure, with a figure (appearing to be Uncle Sam or a U.S. authority figure) about to ring it. Below, a smaller figure clings to the rope, preventing the bell from ringing. The title references a popular 19th-century sentimental poem about a young woman stopping an execution bell. Here, the satire inverts that heroic narrative: instead of sympathetically stopping a bell, the cartoon depicts someone desperately—almost comically—resisting civic authority's lawful curfew enforcement. The cartoon likely mocks those who defied wartime curfews, treating their resistance as absurdly futile against federal law. The cityscape in the background suggests urban context, possibly during WWI or WWII rationing/security measures.