Judge, 1930-02-22 · page 5 of 36
Judge — February 22, 1930 — page 5: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Analysis of Judge Magazine Page **"The Position of Prohibition" (top cartoon):** This satirizes Prohibition-era enforcement. The cartoon shows a householder offering a bribe to what appears to be a law enforcement officer at a distillery or liquor operation. The accompanying poem mocks the contradictions of Prohibition: senators debate "liquor toters" while "riddle liquor launches" operate, and citizens joke about drinking despite the ban. The satire suggests Prohibition is unenforced and hypocritical—officials debate while illegal operations flourish and common people openly flout the law. **"The Meanest Man" (bottom section):** This is primarily a humorous anecdote about a film director casting for a villain role. An applicant describes six weeks' box office experience, and the director sarcastically assigns him the part of "the meanest man in the world," requiring him to be cruel to customers and staff. It's light workplace humor with no apparent political significance.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
The Position of Prohibition The wets and drys hurl custard pies At one another's paunches. The Coast Guard guns that hunted Huns Now riddle liquor launches. With righteous roars our Senators Debate the liquor toters, Rach Senate ecamp—the dry and dump— Is run to please its voters, The Antis spout, the Arid: shout Our moral tone is sinki The common folk enjoy the joke Hovusrnonpen—Wait, I'M give you a lift with thet! And cally keep on drinking. Anrucr L. Lirpaaxn The Meanest Man The moving-picture director was doing the casting for his next produc tion. Into his office drifted a steady stream of applicants for the réle of Perkins, the villain in the fortheom ing epic—"The Meanest Man.” The director untiringly interviewed cach applicant. Now there stood be sre him a stoop-shouldered, wizened man, whose shifty eyes and curved lip presented a perfect picture of a mis anthr "You understand the qualifications for the part?” the director asked. “Yes,” the applicant responded. “You know,” the director said. “you're to play the part of a man who's known as the meanest man in the world. You'll have to be a laugh scornfully at people who you for favors. You'll have to t jast dimes from old wome: you'll have to be able to talk to little children. You're to be chant in the picture, but you'll have to treat all your customers rough. When they complain, or if they think you've made >, you'll have to laugh in th aces. “LT think I can do that all right.” said the applicant confidently. “What experience have you had? “LT worked in the box-office of : theatre for six weeks Recent news dispatches state that Chicago is about broke. They may have to return to the old-time custom of using bullets for money. Then there's the Chicagoan who al ways sticks up for his old home town, Renarite—I'l bet he was trying U read the post cards! 3 comicbooks.com