Judge, 1927-04-23 · page 10 of 36
Judge — April 23, 1927 — page 10: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Explanation for Modern Readers This satirical piece mocks Roman senators as chronic drunks. "Publius," a truant officer tasked with getting senators to sessions, discovers they congregate wherever cork pops—signaling wine. He exploits this by attacking them with a chariot wheel and hauling them to the Senate. When senators devise a defense, they obtain a Sicilian weasel trained to emit cork-popping sounds to lure Publius away. The satire targets 1920s American politicians as inveterate alcoholics who prioritize drinking over duty. The "modern Eve" cartoon above appears to show a woman offering liquor, connecting the theme to Prohibition-era anxieties about alcohol's corrupting influence. The bottom cartoon's caption—"Booze is a god-send, Charlie"—reinforces the message: alcohol is presented as society's curse, reducing men to unconscious, degraded states. The satire suggests political leadership itself is compromised by widespread drunkenness.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
JUDGE Little-known Legends Pop Goes the Weasel Pes was tru- ant officer of Rome. His job was to get the Senators to the Senate, and it was no bed of roses. One day the Em- peror called him on the carpet and told him that un- less the produc- tion of Senators increased fifty per cent. within the next ten days he would be sold down the Tiber. The next day Publius set out with a new vigor, born of despera- tion. He observed NY that wherever he td heard the popping of corks, there he would find Senators. Awaiting his chance, he would tiptoe up behind one of the bibulous backsliders, tap him on the conk with an old chariot wheel which he carried for that purpose, and send him off to the Senate in a dray. By straining if! | W227, Ns 3 ZZ h) ) A modern Eve. his ears for the bopp of corks he doubled his batting average in a week. The slothful Senators met to devise a defense against Publius. One of their number was dele- gated to go on a secret mission to Sicily. When he returned he bore a burlap bag containing a wire- haired Sicilian weasel, which emitted at one- second intervals a clear and _ sono- rous bopp, so realistic that the Senators’ mouths watered at the sound of it. The Senators gathered every night in a deserted saloon and trained their white hope. A Monday morn- ing was chosen for the try-out. Publius came to work fresh from the mountains, where he had been giving his ears a rest. He strolled toward the bar- room belt of Rome, __ listening alertly for distant detonations. Suddenly, from around a cor- ner, he heard bopp!—a mighty report like the popping of the stopper out of a jereboam of liquid lightning. Before he could get his wagon wheel and set off (Continued on page 31) “Booze is a god-send, Charlie. ’Magine layin’ down in the mud sober.” comicbooks.com ibintascel i an cadena oc metaepaditiiatanhastaiae r =e