Judge — February 16, 1929 — page 8: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# "Judge" Cartoon Analysis This cartoon, titled "American Tragedies," depicts a classical Roman amphitheater (suggesting grandeur and public spectacle) with two small boats on water below. One boat holds a candle, the other a torch—both appear to be burning. The caption reads: "Eddie Guest hears he's been taken up by the Intelligentsia." This is satirizing Eddie Guest (a popular American poet of the early 20th century) being embraced by intellectual elites. The joke appears to be that Guest's accessible, sentimental verse—represented by humble candles/torches—is being elevated to high-culture status by the "Intelligentsia." The amphitheater setting suggests this adoption is grandiose and absurd, mocking both Guest's work and pretentious intellectuals who claim to appreciate it.