Judge, 1927-06-18 · page 13 of 36
Judge — June 18, 1927 — page 13: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This humorous article mocks the claim that New York City offers drinks everywhere despite Prohibition (implied by the context of seeking alcohol in public places). The narrator bets "Mac" (likely columnist O.O. McIntyre, a real NYC cultural commentator referenced in the text) nine dollars that he *can't* find a drink anywhere in the city. The joke inverts expectations: at Grand Central Station, the Metropolitan Museum, and the Public Library—places where alcohol should be impossible to obtain—the narrator miraculously finds drinks. A sympathetic stranger offers a flask at the train station; a man pops through a museum painting with cocktails (pun: "varnishing day"); the library's reference desk points to a book literally titled "Something to Drink." The satire targets both Prohibition's ineffectiveness and the hypocrisy of New York's supposedly "respectable" institutions. It suggests liquor is so ubiquitous that even official establishments secretly accommodate drinkers. The cartoon's multiple illustrations show bewildered characters navigating these absurd scenarios.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
JUDGE NIG Someone s id, or maybe I read it in George Nathan’s “Ameri Credo,” that there wasn’t a place in New York city that you couldn't get a drink . being a very skeptical young man, and an in spite of what O. O. McIntyre, and others, have said about the iniquity of our fair city, I have never believed this statement and spoke thusly to “Mac” about it # Se usual he took the oppo site side and offered to bet me nine dollars, I remember dis tinetly that it was nine dollars, that I couldn't find a place where I couldn’t get a drink. ed The first place we tried was the nd Central Station. : I walked up to the man at the information —bu- reau and when I whispered in a hoarse “Where get a drin gave me a very snooty look and suggested that I'd better get a ticket for Rye . getting tickets for liquor 2 voice @e eS ( 2 “f i! ia = ig Was a new one on me and when I asked him timidly where I could get them he said curtly, “Ticket office, level!” .< well, sir, you won't believe it, but when I went down to the ticket office and asked for a drink a man in line behind me pulled out a flask and offered me one, saying in a sympathetic voice, “I know how lower it is, Buddy, when you're caught without a drink.” = Feeling a little bit discouraged, in spite of the scotch, we tried the Metropolitan Museum... we wandered around with an expec tant air without a soul noticing us, LWA T= and I was just beginning to perk up when we stopped in front of a painting. “Mae” wiped and muttered, “Gee, | wish I had a drink,’ and you probably won't believe it, but a his brow man stuck his head right through the canvas and handed us two delicious cocktails! . . . After tasting his “Mac” yelled, “This must be varnishing day ! ci m “Mac won the first round on points, but he didn’t get a drink anyway ! next, I dragged him over to the Public Library, chuckling to myself, because "I knew perfectly well that here of all places it would be impossibl: to obtain liquor... . “Have you got something to drink?” I whis- pered to the lady at the desk she looked at me and then at “S stiffly sir, we went to room 37 and when I asked the lady in charge for something — to drink she pointed to a bookcase and there on the shelf was a called Ui thing to Drink” and wait! aig I took the book WN” (Continued on ther curiously, and replied well, foom page 2%) comicbooks.com