Judge, 1933-05 · page 6 of 36
Judge — May 1933 — page 6: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Explanation for Modern Readers This Judge magazine page contains two satirical pieces: **"Judge" (top):** A cartoon mocking housing shortage and overcrowding, showing a precariously stacked tenement where residents are "tryin' to break our lease." The accompanying text discusses economic hardship—installment debt, banking practices, and the gold standard—suggesting this reflects Depression-era financial anxiety. **"Somebody's Busy":** A dialogue joke between a banker and a client. The humor depends on understanding 1930s banking practices: clients could demand gold for dollars under the gold standard. The joke implies banks were anxious about such demands. Additional anecdotes mock excitable barbers and Nazi sneezing—trivial humor typical of the era's satirical magazine style. Both pieces reflect economic anxiety and banking concerns of the interwar period.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Judge “We're tryin’ to break our lease!” Somebody’s Busy ITT: So you work in a bank. IN What do you do? Witt: Oh, I'm in the indictment re ceiving department. Well, we've got our doctor on a spot He’s been treating us for heart trouble ior ten years—and our heart is in such shape that he doesn’t dare send his bill As we understand it, when a nation m the gold standard it means that a izen can demand gold in return for his dollar and then try and get it. There is a rumor that a Nazi almost caused a riot in Berlin the other day by sneezing. He just went: h Choo!” a couple of times. Our barber is a very excitable fel- low. Only the other morning he cut himself while shaving us. Song Title DIDN'T Raise My B be in the Reforestation Army. The fellow who has sucl good brakes on his car he can stop on a dime probably would if he saw one. And looking back on it, we don’t believe the danger of a gold short country was ever very seri ous. We could always have fallen back on our di wedding rings. ge in this arded An installment collector was telling us that there are thousands of — dollar. men in this country nowa- year days. He says that’s the way they pay their bills, About the only difference between burglars and some of our bankers is the bankers know the combination to the safe. “Aw, you big baby!”