Judge, 1929-01-12 · page 11 of 36
Judge — January 12, 1929 — page 11: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Judge Magazine Satire Analysis This page satirizes political ignorance among the voting public, a common Judge theme in the 1920s. The article "I Know a Girl" mocks a woman who confuses prominent political figures with everyday objects: President Coolidge with an electric refrigerator, Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon's policies with actual melons, Senator William Borah with a medical condition, Vice President Charles Dawes with birds. She thinks the Senate is a hat and the Presidential Cabinet stores kitchen supplies. The satire targets voter apathy and civic illiteracy during the Coolidge administration (1923-1929). References to Hoover, Sumner, and Mellon were contemporary political figures readers would recognize. The top cartoon shows a frightened man watching his sleepwalking wife—likely satirizing how toothpaste advertisements used increasingly absurd models and scenarios for product promotion, a growing advertising trend. The bottom cartoon depicts an absent-minded one-armed streetcar passenger—likely mocking distracted public behavior or transportation hazards of urban life.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
uw The timid husband of a sleepwalking model for tooth- paste ads. I Know a Girl She thinks Hoover is a vacuum cleaner, Coolidge an electric re- and Smith a fellow who stands under a chestnut tree, although she admits she doesn't know why anyone should stand under a chestnut tree unless it’s raining, She said she stood under a chestnut tree once to keep out of the rain. Anyway, she’s terri- bly interested in_ polities. She says she doesn't see why John S. Sumner doesn’t run for ent, as there ¢ vt seem to be anyone in the viee-presi ntry who knows more about the sub jeet. She thinks Borah is a person who talks about nothing but her operation “and all that,” that Dawes is the plural for some kind of a bird or other and that Thomas Hetlin is just) “the smartest man”! We were talking the other evening and I asked her if. she admired the Mellon policy? She said no, That no one as fond of melons as she is could be satis- fied having them only in the summer time. She's a treasury of interesting polities such as t She thinks the Senate is a kind of straw hat and that the Presi dent's Cabinet is where the White House kitchen supplies are kept. She says some day she’s going to Washington and visit all the important buildings, especially the Library, as she wants to hear al Ree ords played. She says she'll buy a couple for her phonograph. if she likes them, —Canont Canon some of the Congressic Absent-minded one-arm driver taking a ride in a street-car nest to a perfect stranger. comicbooks.com