Judge, 1928-03-17 · page 20 of 36
Judge — March 17, 1928 — page 20: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page satirizes American wealth and luck through the story of Jed Wilkins, a farm boy who failed at everything conventional. The narrative mocks how some people succeed through sheer foolishness rather than merit—Jed becomes wealthy operating an illegal card-index service tracking speakeasy raids during Prohibition. The top photograph shows the "Association Against the Prohibition Amendment," referencing the real political movement opposing alcohol bans. The cartoon's point: Prohibition created absurd opportunities for con artists. Jed's "success" despite being fundamentally incompetent exemplifies how Prohibition's illegality generated bizarre, profitable schemes. The satirist (Richard S. Wallace) suggests that the biggest fools sometimes profit most in a system built on illegal activity—a critique of both Prohibition's unintended consequences and American culture's worship of luck over legitimate achievement.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
JUDGE r — — ——_—__—— —-—— 5 runnin’ in’ his life, and lord knows he weren't good for nothin’ | around the farm. | Yes, sir, that boy couldn't a been a farmer if he had wanted to. But lucky for him he didn’t hanker for it and you recollect the city "bout en nothin’ but t fired from | ‘em and was’ wri home fer | I the time until about a g0. | Then he gets a dam-fool idea and now the he's livin’ like a rich fool instead of a poor one —got a couple big houses around Noo York, three or four expen- sive autymobiles and ten or ~ “= twelve hired hands to take care : . of things while he goes galla- First group photograph of the Association Against the Pro- hibition Amendment. The Road to Success Seems like some folks is just born lucky. Go nit-wittin’ their | crazy way through life and first | thing you know old lady luck | take: ney to ‘em and they're rid ‘ound in Rolls Rices and yachts and livin’ on the fat of the land. Nothin’ but just plain luc ke this young whipper- snapper Jed, old man Wilkins’ boy, for instance. I never see such a good-fer-nothin’ fool in oe my life as he was. Never went Here it is. The new Quart Bowler for hanquets—ete., ete. to school more’n a week straight BeDap BEGoRRA vantin’ to Yourope and all over the country for weeks at a time. Yes, sir, Jed Wilkins has just been a big enough fool for lady luck to of took pity on him. Scems like in Noo York these here now speak-easies is gettin’ raided and movin’ round so fast the folks can’t rightly keep track of ‘em, So what docs Jed do but he’s and started a di vice to all the sy P York, with daily supplements of all the raids and changes and newcomers, that keep his two million subscribers’ files right up to the minute! Just goes to show how the big- gest idiots is sometimes just born The stage Irishman arrives in Dublin. lucky.—Ricuano S. Wartace comicbooks.com