Judge — December 18, 1926 — page 21: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This is a joke cartoon from Judge magazine satirizing Prohibition-era bootleggers. The title "Here's the Gin Ruth Said the Shoelegger" plays on the name Babe Ruth (famous baseball player) while "shoelegger" is slang for a small-time bootlegger (someone who hides liquor in shoe-tops). The cartoon depicts a woman (Mrs. Meefer) opening her door to a man in a checkered suit holding a bottle—a bootlegger making a delivery. The accompanying joke describes a rude thirteen-year-old boy ("Lefty Louie") being corrected for his impudence by an adult. The humor conflates two things: the risqué idea of a woman inviting in a bootlegger, and a child's crude rejection of adult social courtesy. The final line ("Then the dawn came up like thunder over China cross the bay") is a literary reference, suggesting this is satirical mockery of both Prohibition-era vice and generational rudeness.