Judge, 1928-07-07 · page 17 of 36
Judge — July 7, 1928 — page 17: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page satirizes the proliferation of mail-order "get rich quick" schemes and dubious sales pitches popular in early 20th-century America. The main cartoon shows a bumbling salesman who has taken seriously all those "Salesmen Make Big Money" advertisements. He arrives at a prospect's home and absurdly pitches unrelated products simultaneously—sink brushes, dish-washers, stockings, insurance policies—mixing up their supposed benefits in nonsensical ways (a brush giving "five more miles to the gallon"). The satire targets both the con-artist advertisers promising easy wealth to anyone selling their products, and the gullible people who believe them. The salesman's incoherent pitch—combining product claims chaotically—mocks how these ads make outlandish, unsubstantiated claims. The bottom cartoon adds office humor about an ineffectual "Pep Editor," suggesting motivational workplace culture produces useless employees. Together, the page lampoons American commercial hucksterism and advertising excess.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
The Man Who Answered All the “Salesmen Make Big | Money” Advertisements Calls on His First Prospect ood morning, madam, Can | I interest you ina sink brush that is guaranteed to give you five more miles to the gallon made up a tasty serge and very chic? atented dish-washer comes a, erépe de chine and blue gabardine and with plenty of sood se nearby trantecd to cure flat feet and falling hair at once Mhese full- fashioned stockings a dollar a len- chen. armless and a quart int and get re- sults that will far execed your are positively even a child can ta of our house | ze, so put ona rdle and let's GOL “Hey, ragman, do you buy rags and asked an old pullet of a flotsam-hawker. © hop right up on the scales!" said Osiris eagerly. And nox allow it to rest for anather hundred years. of sure-fire spark plugs that will | solve your servant problem and make you the Life of the Party in six beautiful and durable fab: rics. without any obligation to yourself whatsoever. May [serve | you?” | —Arruve L. Livesaass The office pest wants to know if the dirty cracks we print arc from a contented coward. | } i} \ | ‘I'm not interested. [2 . “As [Twas saying, we will give you free of any “we a ten | thousand dollar insur. policy = made up in genuine pigskin and warran not to fade, ble: ‘ run, And Etiquette, madam, how is your etiquette? Is it run down and functioning poorly? Has it spots before. the > Does it | cough at night? Lf so, our speci hooks on interior decora’ poultry raising are needed. 1, Presipent—And who, may I ask, is this loafer? | therefore, offer you six volumes Assistant—That's the “Pep” Editor of our House Organ. ! | L comicbooks.com