Judge, 1929-03-30 · page 19 of 36
Judge — March 30, 1929 — page 19: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This satirical piece mocks the 1920s stock market speculation craze and its devastating aftermath—likely the 1929 crash. The cartoon traces how ordinary working people (bootblacks, newsboys, waitresses, chambermaids) were seduced by "hot tips" and promises of quick wealth through stock speculation, encouraged by brokers shouting "More Margin!" The satire depicts these "lambs" being systematically fleeced by "brutal bears" (market manipulators) who drove down stocks, ruining ordinary citizens. The poem catalogs real 1920s companies—Hershey, Goodrich, Kraft—that collapsed or crashed. The moral: working-class people abandoned their modest but stable jobs, risked everything on reckless stock speculation, and lost everything when the market crashed. The "sympathetic symphony" is sardonic—Lippmann mocks both the gullible speculators and the brokers who exploited them, showing how the stock market promised democracy but delivered only devastation.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Dp, AP wr Pp ir~ R SG A hotio b But what i: A cry of insistence ruthless commar “S a) ia That echoes from Maine to the Hollywood strand? KBADTOLD BEAR Lippmann. ri s arr “ RS Vee 4 og. - . = “More Margin!” bellow brokers, “Put all in hoc stock! Hypothecate ancest. And drain the {¢ More Margin, Margi A The breathless brokers shout, “And if you fail to mail the kale Qo 1 é We'll have to sell you out, s We'll have to sell you out, poor lambs, Your holdings to decrease ; The brutal bears with subtle snares Depressed your swiftly soaring shares, Then lured you lambkins to their lairs And sheared your Golden Fleece!” SHEEP SHEARS org? opens — Mack and alas for the Stock Market Cult— “SS EB J Their party is over and here’s the result: = n shines my shoes. in vend: Tony the bootblac Jimmy the newsboy is the ne (Back to their jobs flock the mortified mobs + Whe tocks were alleged to be “strictly gilt-edged!”) Minna the waitress again slings her beans. Mamie the chambermaid tid and cleans. (Nix on her choice of a ritzy Rolls Royce— Now Mame should rejoice there's a dime in her poice!) They squandered their cash, being reckless and rash For poor stocks and “sure” stocks, secure stock: Then BANG! came the crash—now they're back Hershey Cocoa, Baldwin Loco, Butterick and Butte, Goodrich Rubber, Gabriel Snubber, Briggs, United Fruit, Kraft Cheese, Celanese, Kolster, Kelvinator, Bohn Brass, Con Gas, Stromberg Carburetor, Moto Meter, Superheater (get 'em while they're hot!) Piggly Wiggly, Wright or Wrigley, Merritt-Chapman-Scott! Step up to the counter where the hot tips smoke— One guy makes a million—and the rest go broke! Sth WN rey comicbooks.com