Judge, 1937-01 · page 9 of 52
Judge — January 1937 — page 9: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Cartoon Analysis: "Judge" Magazine Page This page contains a satirical cartoon and anecdotes mocking American business and advertising culture, likely from the 1920s-1930s based on style. The main cartoon depicts people examining a large cylindrical object (possibly a mattress or safe) at what appears to be a bank. The caption reads: "Maw sez she's willing to bank her money here, but you've got to leave it sewed up in the mattress." The joke critiques distrust of banks—a rural or working-class woman refuses to deposit her savings conventionally, instead keeping money literally sewn into a mattress, a common Depression-era practice reflecting widespread banking skepticism. The surrounding text mocks corporate advertising schemes (like the "Skywriting Corp." and "Man Can Now Talk With God") and absurd business propositions, satirizing American commercial excess and gullibility.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
There's one banner that everybody in the Skywriting Corp. still broods over. A Mr. H. Hinrichs ordered it flown over the S. S. Bremen one day. “‘Eala- Bambus,” it said. The Corp. did the job, and Mr. Hinrichs handed over his $60 and left, without a word. You can make a friend for life, if you'll write in to the Corp. and tell Angus what ‘‘Eala- Bambus” means. At rare intervals a job comes up that the Skywriting Corp. won't take. A man in Detroit offered the latest of these. He walked into the company’s Detroit office, in the midst of the drought months, and made a proposition, “Will you take $1000 to write a four- letter word?” he asked. The Corp. asked particulars. “Well, look,” the man said, “I'll go to a drought state and promise to put rain in the sky if they'll raise $10,000.” The Corp.'s eyes glazed. “Aw listen,” the man said, “we could beat ‘em in court. We'll put “RAIN” in the sky, just like we promise.” The Corp. said no. “Damn it,” the man said as he walked out, “a guy can’t make an honest dollar in this country anymore?" According to advertisements prepared by Dr. Frank B. Robinson, of Moscow, Idaho, “Man Can Now Talk With God.” We are going to send for Dr. Robinson's teachings, and learn the trick. Then we are going to talk to God. We have certain questions to ask about the recent history of this world that only He can answer. Why, we will ask, did Officer Engel- mann arouse the town of Amherst, Mass., early one morning, by firing eight shots at eight pigeons, killing them all? Why did Anna and Everett Rice, of New York, quarrel over a football game; why, when the radio gave Everett's team the lead, did Anna leap out the window to her death, exclaim- ing, “Well, that’s that!’ ‘Why, when Edmund Davis Cronon, of Minneapolis, was singing “Sound An Alarm,” from Handel's Oratorio, “Judas Maccabeus,” did an alarm gong in the auditorium sound? Why did Hyman Gorwitz of San Francisco, set out stcel wolf traps baited with metal discs resembling coins, to catch the children of the neighbor- hood? Why did Bela Revesz, young Buda- pest printer, compose the name of his boss’ daughter, Eleanora, in headline type, and swallow it, necessitating the application of a stomach pump? Why,-Oh Lord? “Maw sez she’s willing to bank her money here, but you've got to leave it sewed up in the mattress.” Judge comicbooks.com