Life, 1919-05-15 · page 11 of 50
Life — May 15, 1919 — page 11: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This 1936 *Life* magazine page satirizes a legal case involving tobacco cultivation. The top cartoon shows a figure at a desk laboriously writing or "untangling" legal arguments—representing the complexity of the defendant's case. The main story describes a courtroom verdict: a defendant was found guilty of violating the Twenty-third Amendment and Kentucky state law by growing tobacco on their land. The judge sentenced them to ten years in prison, with lands to be confiscated. The bottom photograph's caption, "Why Their Daughter Didn't Help Get Breakfast That Morning," suggests the daughter was arrested alongside the defendant—apparently for assisting in the illegal tobacco cultivation. The satire critiques the severity of these agricultural law penalties during the Depression era.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
hyena tel be a, A. D. HUSHED and gloomy silence fell on the courtroom: al Juror had filed into the jury chair with led verdict. The aged prisoner shifted uneasily in air beside his counsel esently the judge emerged from her boudoir behind At her command the ench and rapped for order read the verd finding the prisoner guilty in man- nd form as charged by the Public Inquisitor, and he immediately ordered to stand up and receive the judg- 1 of the court. Her Honor said: You have been found guilty by the Special Juror of the se laid in the Complaint of the Public Inquisitor. Your fic crime was that of permitting tobacco to be grown in violation of the fourth subdivision of Act of the Legislature of Kentucky, Act of Congress to enforce our lands, on two of the irrently with an 7a 1936 the Constitut Amendment to the Your defense, that it provisions third mn of the United States. was your son who planted the noxious weed for his per- nal use in gratifying a habit formed while in the service of the United St at War of 1918, had no weight with the Special Juror, and will not be considered s in the hy the court in passing sentence “You are therefore condemned to undergo imprison- ment for a period of ten years, and in view of the gravity ur confinement will be in the Asylum for Drinkers. The lands of the defendant on which the of the offense. y Inebriate Grape Juice clerk will enter an order contiscatir the tohacco was grown.” With a wild shrick of despair the prisoner fell into the arms of the sheriff, who carried him to the hoodlum acro- plane for transportation to the asylum WHY THEIR DAUGHTER DIDN'T HELP GET BREAKFAST THAT MORNING comicbooks.com