Judge, 1935-05 · page 8 of 36
Judge — May 1935 — page 8: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Explanation for Modern Readers This page from *Judge* magazine contains two legal satires: **Top cartoon ("Witness Excused!")**: An attorney frustrates a witness through repetitive questioning about visibility at night. When pressed to name what he could see "several miles" away, the witness answers "The moon"—exposing the absurdity of the attorney's gotcha-style cross-examination. The judge and lawyer's reaction suggests the witness has outwitted them through literal truth-telling. **Bottom cartoon**: A judge questions a witness about Mrs. Fitch's husband's cooking, asking what he does after adding eggs and flour. The humor relies on the innuendo that he's asking about baking, but the witness (or reader) might imagine something inappropriate, playing on double meanings common to this era's courtroom humor. Both cartoons mock lawyer tactics and courtroom absurdities.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Witness Excused! URING a cross examination an attorney was having trouble with a witness who insisted on evad- ing the questions and quaifying the answers, Finally the combined ef- forts of the judge and the attorney seemed to impress him and he prom- ised to answer the questions simply and directly, whereupon the exami- ‘on proceeded as follows: “And so it was a clear night?” “Yes.” “How far could you see?” “How many miles could you see “I do not know.” “You don’t know how many miles ‘ould see?” Il then, let me put it this way, did you see some familiar object ; distance: several miles?” “Yes. “What did you see?” “The moon.” “It’s Mrs. Fitch’s husband again, your honor. He says he’s added the eggs and flour, now what does he do?” 6 comicbooks.com