Judge — November 19, 1927 — page 20: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This comic satirizes wealthy New Yorkers' pretensions and social contradictions. The top panel shows an elegant dinner party where guests boast about purchasing the Catalina Islands while discussing expensive acquisitions. The humor centers on conspicuous consumption: a man brags he could "buy the Catalina Islands" while others discuss newfound romance and social climbing ("meaning they seldom meet nowadays"). The lower panels mock the absurdity of this wealth disparity—one figure suggests burying someone in a "beautiful lake" in a cemetery, while another jokes about "saving space" by cramming people together to preserve room for a "Scotch number" (likely referring to Scottish whisky). The underlying satire targets the disconnect between the wealthy's lavish spending and their petty, materialistic concerns, presented as humor about New York's Gilded Age social circles.