Judge, 1928-11-03 · page 16 of 36
Judge — November 3, 1928 — page 16: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page satirizes the popular "gangster plays" that were trendy in 1920s American theater. The top cartoon shows a judge being knocked backward—literal visual humor about courtroom chaos. The main piece, "Father Tells a Bedtime Story," parodies how these violent crime dramas had become so culturally pervasive that a father unconsciously mimics their brutal language and plots when telling his children a bedtime story. He uses gangster slang ("gats," "bump him off") and describes animal characters (Chipmunk, Squirrel, Weasel) engaged in a prohibition-era "hazel nut racket"—clearly mocking how crime dramas substituted animals for human criminals. The satire's point: these theatrical gangster plays were so influential and morally questionable that they were corrupting family life and normalizing violent criminal language as entertainment. It's social commentary on how popular media sensationalizes crime, dressed up as humorous domestic irony. The page also includes unrelated comic anecdotes about a barber and hotel guests—typical magazine filler.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
JUDGE Father Tells a Bedtime Story (After Attending One of the Current Gangster Plays) “Settle down quiet now, you lousy offsprings, and pay en- tion or I'll empty a couple of gats into your mid-sections. This / * -"@! story is about Chicago Chipmunk ‘and the hazel nut racket, and Iet me tell you it’s a wow! “Well, Chicago Chipmunk and Shotgun Squirrel were chiefs of rival gangs in the loop district of Blackjack Woods. Now Shotgun Squirrel had sworn that if he ever caught Chicago Chipmunk run- ning juniper juice—I nuts—in his territory, he'd bump him off good and proper. Well, Chicago Charlic as they called him, wasn’t taking no chances, so he always went around with a big bodyguard—Willie the Weasel; the Rabbit brothers; Poison Peter; the Rat, and Bi “Well, one morning abo M. I'll be xx ——xx dif gun Squirrel wasn’t awakened by n hazel Turse Stare “Just a 1 of a racket going on under his hangout. There, sure enough, was the Chipmunk Gang running a truck-load of hazel nuts out of Blackj: Woods to Carson County. Well, a ck as you can Shotgun aks down out of his tree and hotfoots it liquorty liqu cut to the junction where the Chipmunk truck was headed, and plants a half a dozen genuine N. T. ers. Well, to make long story short, t finished up all his ‘gang against Chi Charlie himself, who, as lu would have it, had a date with Moll Marmoset that evening. “To-morrow night, buoys and goils—Chicago Charlie’s Revenge, or Shotgun Squirrel Encounters a@ High-Powered Limousine. And now I think it's about time all you little —— —s kissed your daddy good-night and went’ up- stairs to flop.” —Parke Cumsines moments more, Ferdinand. When the guests Then there was the barber who leave, there'll be room for you spent his vacation shingling his to come back.” house. comicbooks.com