Judge, 1932-04-09 · page 12 of 36
Judge — April 9, 1932 — page 12: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Analysis of Judge Magazine Page This page satirizes poker as a vice disguised as entertainment. The article humorously condemns the game as psychologically manipulative, expensive, and morally corrupting—yet the author admits playing it anyway. The **top cartoon** shows scantily-clad women boxing, captioned "Come on you mugs!"—likely contrasting frivolous entertainment with the serious money-losing happening at poker tables. The **lower cartoon** depicts a renting agent reluctant to show an apartment because "Miss O'Day doesn't want to show" it—presumably she's engaged in an illicit activity (likely prostitution, given the era and context), suggesting poker and moral dissolution go hand-in-hand in Jazz Age society. The article's final admission—"We already have [lost everything]"—reveals the satire's target: the self-destructive compulsion of gambling, presented with wry humor rather than moral outrage. This reflects Judge's cynical take on 1920s social vices.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
JUDGE Games We Love Not to Play JOKER is a of psychology where four aces beats three of a kind, and where the most we ever hold is two pairs nine high. It is played when the party is too large it for bridge or petting, and hasn't sense enough to go home. As far as we're concerned, it’s a far better sedative than counting sheep or triple bromides, but it’s more ex- pensive—even when we ve to buy real sheep to count. t There are many, many varieties of poker, all of them equally unpleasant. i Straight poker is played with noth- i ing wild except the folks who are } down $13.75, and you can open on } anything. Suckers usually do. Deal- } er’s choice means that the dealer can choose anything he wants to except | badminton. “Deuces wild” for in- stance, mi all twos can be counted a y iven card in the pack. It also means that we had two of them the hand before (when we were playing straight poker), and that the person on our left is “Come on you mugs!” now holding three of them plus a pair of aces. Here is the way poker holdings rank, Two pa beat one pair. ree of a kind beat two pairs. A aight beats three of a kind. A flush beats a straight. Four of a kind beats a flush, and five of a kind is apt to cause trouble. Straight and royal flushes beat everything else, and six stiff rye highballs beat I every known holding, and make poker seem almost enjoyable to us Poker is more interesting than lots of games because you can bluff. This means that you can lose practically any given amount on any one hand eT ee lS eae by trying to fool your opponents, wher in less scientific games you merely shut up, and tak small loss. Not being a partnership game, poker has few conventions. The only one we know—an ethical one is that a fellow who is winning is not supposed to stop until his luc’ has turned and all his winnings have been won back from him. A loser, on the other hand, is not supposed to stop until he has lost everything he has. We already have. Renting Agent--I'm afraid Miss O'Day doesn't want to show the apartment just now! —ParKE CUMMINGS. 10 comicbooks.com