Judge, 1928-02-25 · page 24 of 36
Judge — February 25, 1928 — page 24: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a humorous adventure story by "Judge, Jr." (a fictional persona) recounting an absurd airplane trip to Chicago. The satire works on multiple levels: **The Setup:** The narrator claims ignorance about Chicago despite "facts," humorously admitting his knowledge comes from drinking martinis rather than research. **The Joke:** The story escalates absurdly—a character named "Mac" drops alphabet soup overboard; the soup apparently triggers Chicago's entire gun arsenal to fire; Mayor Thompson becomes so enraged he orders all city guns discharged. An American flag stops the bombardment. **Social References:** The piece mocks Chicago's violent reputation (the "Windy City") and Mayor Thompson (likely William "Big Bill" Thompson, Chicago's controversial mayor of that era, known for colorful, aggressive politics). The landing near a "College Humor" office is self-promotional advertising. **The Humor:** Early 20th-century slapstick absurdism—taking mundane events to ridiculous extremes to satirize the city's reputation for violence and chaos.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
By June, Jr. (Drinking Time—Three HICAGO is a very large city with a population of 2,701,705. It is situated on the shores of Lake Michigan and is a great industrial cen- ter. This information I obtained from Martinis.) My Aeroplane Trip to Chicago Another Thrilling Adventure of the Daring Ace, Judge, Jr. ad Ul SAY-OL BEAN Pb Spirit of Pol Roger! imagine our surprise! “It must be anti-aircraft guns!” 1 hoarsed, but Mac yelled as he looked down, “Why, it’s Chi- cago! It seems, we found out after- wards, that the H Mac had dropped landed right in front of Mayor Thompson as he was walking down Michigan Avenue, and he was so incensed (mad) You can intense NORE PALLY WELL JUDGE, IR, snapped on LST / Webster's Unabridged Dictionary! The reason for this meager knowl- edge is because our stay there was very, very short and I have but a hazy impression of the Windy City. It all happened this way. We had decided to come straight to Chicago from Palm Beach, and after flying for Michigan Ave. during his brief trip to Chicago. fifteen or sixteen hours we lost our bearings. We were cruising along at an altitude of about two thousand feet when a very funny thing happened, as you will agree. , that droll fellow, was eating Alphabet soup, his only weak- ness outside of rou- lette, Poker, Craps, Bridge, Twenty-one, Bird Cage, Liquor, Lollipops, Women, Chocolate Eclairs, Caramel Custard and Golf, when suddenly the plane side slipped and he tipped some of the soup overboard. As he watched it go over’ the side, he ejacu- lated, and he’s no mean ejaculator, “My Gosh! 1 dropped an H!” Well, sir, it wasn’t more than a minute after than we heard the sound of firing and bullets started to whizz around the 2 __ mes —_| that he ordered all the guns in the city to be shot off immedi- Fortunately Mac had an n flag in his pocket and upon waving it vigorously the firing sed. After circling the city cautiously for a while we finally made a landing on Clark Street. As we taxied to a stop we heard loud cheering coming from a magnificent building on the right, and thinking it must be a committee of welcome we listened. Imagine our surprise when we heard “Rah! Rah! Rah! — Sis Boom Ah! Comics! Comics! Com- ics!” “Why!” exclaimed Mac point- ing to a sign, “That's the office of Col- lege Humor!” Just then a distinguished looking man clad in an English Broadcloth Coat and an English Bowler hat came walking down the street, so stepping up to him politely, T said, “Hi say, Old Bean! We're bally well lost in this bloody city of Could you direct us to the City 2” Well, at that the poor man got purple in the face and shaking a Dunhill cane at us started chasing us down the street! You can imagine our surprise! As we neared the corner we noticed a police- [CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE) comicbooks.com