Judge — May 15, 1920

# Analysis This page is **not a cartoon or satire** — it's a straightforward **advertisement** for Pennsylvania Vacuum Cup Cord Tires, manufactured by Pennsylvania Rubber Co. in Jeannette, Pennsylvania. The image shows a tire's tread pattern in close-up. The ad's key claim is that the "Vacuum Cup Tread is GUARANTEED not to skid on wet, slippery pavements," addressing a practical safety concern for early automotive drivers. The text emphasizes standardized pricing and warranty coverage (5,000-9,000 miles depending on tire type). The company lists factory branches and agencies across the United States and Canada, with an export department in New York City. This represents typical early 20th-century tire advertising focused on safety innovation and distribution networks.

# Judge Magazine, May 25, 1920 This illustration satirizes the purchase of automobiles by wealthy women. The caption reads: "Lookit, Sadie, Lookit the Dame with the Limousine Body in' the One-Cylinder Mind!" The cartoon depicts a well-dressed woman in a hat and fur stole examining a car at what appears to be a dealership or showroom, while onlookers (including a character apparently named "Sadie") mock her. The satire suggests that this fashionable woman is foolishly buying an expensive, luxury automobile ("limousine body") despite lacking the intelligence ("one-cylinder mind") to operate or appreciate it properly. This reflects 1920s anxieties about women's newfound economic independence and consumer power following World War I and the approaching suffrage amendment.

# Political Cartoon Analysis This Judge magazine cartoon satirizes Hollywood's exorbitant salaries during the silent film era. The drawing shows a woman (likely a movie actress or "movie queen") kneeling while a man in formal dress stands behind her, appearing dismissive or condescending. The caption reads: "Don't Worry; She Is Only Earning Her Salary of One Million a Year as a Movie Queen!" The satire targets the perceived absurdity of million-dollar annual salaries paid to film actresses—astronomical sums for the period. By depicting the actress in a submissive, degrading posture while earning such vast wealth, the cartoon mocks both the excessive compensation and the power dynamics of Hollywood's studio system. The joke suggests that despite their enormous pay, actresses remained subservient to studio interests and male authority figures.

# Analysis This page primarily contains a short story titled "Uncle Rodney's Moonshine Tobacco" by Ellis Parker Butler, rather than political satire. The illustration at top shows a street scene with numerous figures gathered around a street lamp at night, captioned "It Is Rumored That the Owner Might Consider Resting His House." The story itself concerns Uncle Rodney Peabody, who illegally grows tobacco in Connecticut during Prohibition (the 1920s). The narrative humorously explores the tension between federal alcohol prohibition laws and tobacco cultivation, with family members discussing Uncle Rodney's contraband farming activities. The cartoon appears to be narrative illustration accompanying the story rather than political commentary. Judge magazine here functions as a fiction publication rather than solely as political satire.

# Analysis of Judge Magazine Page The top cartoon satirizes a film promotion. A woman stands outside a theater showing "Kings and Queens of the Jungle—Released Monday," a Prof. Growlers educational film. Inside the window display, primates are arranged like theatrical performers. The satire mocks both the film industry's promotional tactics and the era's fascination with exotic animal attractions presented as "educational" entertainment. The main story below concerns Uncle Rodney's near-fatal encounter with a pipe: he nearly died attempting to smoke it after a whiff of tobacco made him ill. Three doctors (wearing gas masks for protection) revive him. The narrative satirizes either prohibition-era sensitivities or contemporary temperance movements by exaggerating the dangers of tobacco use and the comic desperation of a man attempting vice.

# "How Times Have Changed" - Judge Magazine Satire This page satirizes **early 20th-century consumer culture and changing social expectations**. The main article by Harvey Riggs contrasts family life "twenty years ago" with the present day, documenting how modern conveniences and leisure aspirations have created financial pressure rather than comfort. The satire targets: - **Wives**: Once satisfied with manual labor (washboards), now expecting electric appliances while consuming expensive luxuries - **Husbands**: Demanding expensive automobiles (twelve-cylinder speed wagons) instead of modest buggies - **Children**: Sons avoiding chores through entertainment; daughters prioritizing beauty parlors and theater over household duties - **Overall message**: Technology and rising consumer expectations have made families perpetually "broke" despite labor-saving devices meant to improve their lives The cartoon below ("Prohibition Pirates") appears to mock alcohol prohibition enforcement. The humor stems from depicting how modernization and social change have ironically worsened financial security rather than improving it—a critique of unchecked consumerism and status-seeking behavior.

# "Good-Bye" by Harry Irving Shumway — Judge Magazine This is a humorous essay with accompanying illustration satirizing the modern difficulty of saying goodbye—particularly between courting couples. The piece mocks how people (especially young men courting women) cannot end conversations decisively, instead adding multiple "false endings" that drag on indefinitely. The essay catalogs the stages of an elaborate goodbye: the initial phone farewell, the "sad song" by the umbrella stand, the porch scene requiring cigarettes, and romantic recitations from literature. The illustration depicts several figures in what appears to be an interior setting—likely representing the various awkward stages described: men in hats lingering, a woman seated, and various poses suggesting the prolonged, repetitive nature of the goodbye ritual. The satire targets contemporary courtship conventions and the emotional theatricality young men employ to extend romantic moments, while also poking fun at the genuine difficulty both parties have in achieving actual separation. It's essentially early 20th-century commentary on relationship awkwardness.

# "Placing the Blame" This satirical piece critiques how responsibility for wartime profiteering and inflation gets deflected through the supply chain. The cartoon illustrates three parties blaming each other for high prices: 1. **The Wholesaler** claims innocence—he merely sold goods at market rates 2. **The Retailer** points to the wholesaler's inflated prices 3. **The Consumer** (depicted as a working-class person, possibly Black, based on the term "Afmte") becomes the scapegoat The satire's bitter conclusion: society blames the powerless consumer for accepting exploitation rather than holding profiteers accountable. The final stanza suggests the consumer, accustomed to mistreatment, passively accepts blame he doesn't deserve. This likely addresses post-WWI or wartime inflation dynamics, where middlemen profited while common people bore economic hardship—a classic deflection of responsibility from powerful to powerless.

# "The Banker" - Judge Magazine Satire This article satirizes bankers as a professional class through exaggerated character portrayal. The author (Curt Suarez) mocks bankers as: **The Type**: Dignified, cold, meticulous men who work minimal hours (9 a.m. to 3 p.m.) yet accumulate substantial wealth through conservative financial practices—paying 4% on deposits while reinvesting for profit. **The Satire**: Bankers are portrayed as emotionally detached ("coldest cob"), obsessed with obscure financial terminology, and mercilessly exploitative. The humor emphasizes their power: they can instantly detect overdrafts, demand collateral without hesitation, and leave "good wills" that die with them while their depositors' good intentions are "buried." **Key Jokes**: A banker's best moment is when someone begs for loan extension; golf opponents should interrupt critical putts with loan requests; bankers' character can be judged by gold letters on their windows. The cartoon illustrations appear to show bankers in their element—one labeled "Game Called on Account of Darkness" depicts banking as sport. The overall message critiques banker arrogance and financial dominance during the early 20th century.

# "Prunes" — A Satire on Disagreeable Men This is a humorous moral essay illustrated with a cartoon. "Full of prunes" is period slang meaning someone is full of complaints, negativity, or hot air—likely referencing prunes' well-known laxative properties. The piece catalogs three types of objectionable men: 1. **Bunkinson**: A perpetually gloomy pessimist who complains constantly and tries to regulate others' fun with restrictive laws. 2. **Jephson Jinks**: A newly wealthy social climber with "cheap pride" who boasts about his money and dismisses anyone without wealth, despite his own lowly origins ("tinhorn mutt, a human hand-me-down"). 3. **Ganderson**: A perpetual office-seeker who chases political positions he doesn't deserve while his hardworking neighbors build real lives. The cartoon depicts society literally ejecting these men—"sorting out his stocks"—for their tiresome, disagreeable natures. The satire suggests that character and temperament matter more than wealth or ambition; complainers, snobs, and chronic failures become social pariahs.

# "Arches, Not of Victory, But of Defeat" This satirical essay by Oswin Lowell mocks a character named Firkins who obsessively discusses his foot problems and theories about racial foot structure. Firkins claims different races have naturally different foot postures—Ethiopians "flat-foot," Mongolians "straight-ahead," Americans "toe-in"—and theorizes that Black Americans' social troubles stem from their foot positioning rather than systemic factors. Lowell's satire exposes the absurdity of such pseudo-scientific racial theories by having Firkins apply them everywhere: he claims the "Black Crook" dancers' success came from their toe-out posture, and that past generations suffered because they adopted unnatural stances. The cartoons illustrate various foot positions and "types," accompanying Lowell's ridicule of Firkins' self-absorbed hypochondria and his attempt to explain racial differences through trivial physical traits—a transparent mockery of early 20th-century racist pseudoscience that attributed social inequality to biological rather than social causes.

# Analysis of "The Shortest Way Home" This is a domestic comedy story illustrated by Lawrence Fellows. The narrative concerns Mr. Paine's reluctance to invite his friend Jack Wentworth to stay, despite his wife's insistence. The setup plays on a common early-20th-century social anxiety: a husband fears his charming houseguest will seduce his daughter Isabel. Mrs. Paine initially objects to Jack's poverty; Mr. Paine suspects she actually fears romantic entanglement between Jack and Isabel. The irony—and the joke's resolution—is that Jack, now thirty-five and a confirmed bachelor, interests Isabel only as a "type" for her writing ambitions. She has no romantic interest in him. Mr. Paine's protective anxiety proves baseless. The cartoon illustration shows the characters in a period automobile, visualizing the social situation. The humor derives from the gap between parental worry and actual circumstance—a relatable domestic theme for Judge's middle-class readership.