Judge, 1931-01-24 · page 5 of 36
Judge — January 24, 1931 — page 5: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Analysis This page satirizes waiting at traffic lights through humorous suggestions for passing time. The top cartoon shows a judge figure and small character (likely representing a banker and junior employee) during a financial crisis—the judge says "My gawd, George! Our bank has failed!" with the junior responding "Okay, Junior—cover up my head, too!"—a dark joke about the economic collapse being so total that death seems preferable. The main article offers comedic advice: horn-honking, making faces at other drivers, yawning contagiously, and chatting with pedestrians. The bottom cartoon depicts someone attempting an acrobatic stunt for "a diction prize" while stopped in traffic. The satire critiques both traffic tedium and the economic despair of the era (likely Depression-era Judge magazine), using humor to address widespread frustration.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
JUDGE “My gawd, George! Our bank has failed!” “Okay, Junior—cover up my head, too How to Amuse Yourself While Waiting for the Traffic Light to Change Sratisticians have estimated that the aggregate time wasted in one week by people waiting for traffic lights to change equals the time still to be served by the combined inmate population of all our jails, including those in for violating the prohibition act. Take the case of a single individual. Say he travels an average of thirty miles per day, That's about thirty stop lights, or, let us say, fifteen minutes wasted. Think of the liberal education ¢ could obtain by reading just fifteen minutes per day. Th is no reason why every motorist so inclined should not have a set of the Harvard Classics tucked a in the rumble seat, ever ready for a quick perusal whenever the opportunity presents itself. Besides a fellow could start for downtown in the morning, get caught in a few traffic jams and arrive at the office quite well educated. Horn honking is another way some folks have of amusing themselves when the lights a inst them. Like yawning, it is contagious and soon spreads. Like ng, too, it is sometimes hard on the ears. While a tra serenade has never been known to have the slightest effect on an automatic lighting system it sometimes proves effective on one operated by hand. Making faces or casting dirty looks upon the driver who has just cut in in front of you is another way to pass the time when you pull up to him at the stop light. It is even possible to exchange pleasantries. A conversation started by asking a fellow where he learned to drive will often cause the time to pass so quickly that the participants won't realize the light has changed, until of course reminded by the patient souls in other cars held up by the discussion, Pedestrians, too, can find ways of entertaining themselves while waiting on corners for a break in the traffic. Red Rover 3 ” is about the best game, and the last one over is it. The idea is not to get tagged by a passing taxicab. r “Say, can’t you chaps slow up a bit? I’m trying for iy ‘ P iP a diction prize.” comicbooks.com