Judge, 1932-12 · page 9 of 38
Judge — December 1932 — page 9: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Judge Magazine Page Analysis This page contains **short satirical news items** ("So What?") mocking absurd real-world situations, plus two unrelated cartoons. The news briefs use exaggeration to critique: - **Legal loopholes** (Stockholm nightclubs selling clothing to circumvent closing laws) - **Irony** (gangsters practicing on cardboard police targets; prohibition conviction backlog released after repeal) - **Absurdity** (Australian minister insuring church donations against rain; Virginia man freed for parking violation because he'd "never seen" a fire hydrant; Texas woman refusing to mail a stamp depicting a classical nude discus thrower as "indecent") The **top cartoon** illustrates the Dallas stamp story, showing shocked reactions to the nude figure. The **bottom cartoon** depicts a hospital maternity ward mix-up, with the caption "There's been a mistake, Mr. Jones...this is the maternity card"—likely meaning someone received the wrong paperwork or newborn. The humor relies on period-specific sensibilities (prudishness about nudity, post-Prohibition attitudes, cultural assumptions) that require historical context for modern readers.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Judge So What? CTOCKHOLM. The early-closing law 9 for night clubs is being circum- vented. A small haberdashery stock 3 placed in the clubs and every pa- ron purchases some trifle. Then hey dance, and there is no law igainst dancing all night in a cloth- ng shop. Suenos Aires. Police who raided a gangster den found three gunmen oracticing revolver shooting. were using cardboard figures of po- licemen as their targets. Melbourne, Australia. A local minis- ter has taken out rain protection in- surance, to insure his church collec- tion. He pays a dollar and a quarter a week premium, and if a storm breaks before noon on Sunday, he collects twenty-five dollars from the insurance company. Seminole, Ark. A committee of scien- tists under Dr. Krogman tried to make a house-to-house survey of the Seminole tribe in the interests of anthropology. But the Indians re- fused to answer their questions, sus- pecting them of being prohibition agents. Helsingfors, Finland. The repeal of the prohibition law was welcomed by prison authorities. Twenty thousand persons convicted under this law were patiently waiting their turn to serve prison sentences, and they will now probably be released. Washington. Harold A. Bartlett, a visitor from Virginia, was arrested for parking his car in front of a fire There's been a mistake, Mr. Jones... They ‘ “AU about the triple Yuletide hatchet slaying!” hydrant. But when he explained to the judge that he had never seen one of those things before, he was freed. Dallas, Tex. A patroness of the local postoffice refused to buy a stamp, 7 because it pictured a nude discus thrower. She said she could not think of sending “the picture of a naked man on a letter to mama.” W. E. FARBSTEIN this is the maternity ward. comicbooks.com