We continue our celebration of the centennial of Cartoons Magazine, with more extracts from its January 1912 first issue. Today’s extracts involve sin (or, the 1912 idea of it), crime, and punishment.

First, two anti-smoking cartoons. The top-most comic is a reprinted episode from The Outbursts of Everett True strip, by A.D. Condo.

Below, the top cartoon — For Shame!, by James H. Donahey — refers to prosecutions of indecency (by 1912 standard) against theatre productions. The bottom right cartoon refers to charges of “labor-slavery” made against United States Steel Corporation‘s then Chairman, Judge E.H. Gary, involving the 7-day week 12-hour day at the time in force at his steel mills (click here to read a New York Times article).

Click on the above & below pictures, to view them in detail, and read the accompanying text.

Next, more theatre-themed cartoons, involving local prosecution and censorship. Shall We Have a New Cop on Amusement Ave.? shows a cop as “Theatrical Censor”, boarding up an Amusement Hall, and casting to the curb, “salacious” performers, and “demoralizing films”. With So This is My Home?, artist Robert Minor depicts Satan looking towards St. Louis, and reading a newspaper, wherein evangelist/preacher Fred B. Smith had apparently labeled St. Louis, the Devil’s Home.

Finally, the below page gathers cartoons on crime, the conviction rate, the capital punishment rate, and the intelligence of jurors versus the vocabulary of lawyers. The most prominent cartoonists in the below group, is W.A. Rogers.

I’ve got more extracts from Cartoons Magazine to post, so watch for more throughout the week.

Doug Wheeler

TheatricalCartoons Robert Minor, Jr. Harry J. Westerman