“The Judge Wised Him Up” (ca. 1913) by Thomas A “Tad” Dorgan

Dorgan is an interesting guy. He is generally credited with either creating or popularizing such words and expressions as “dumbbell” (a stupid person); “for crying out loud” (an exclamation of astonishment); “cat’s meow” and “cat’s pajamas” (as superlatives); “applesauce” (nonsense); “cheaters” (eyeglasses); “skimmer” (a hat); “hard-boiled” (tough and unsentimental); “drugstore cowboy” (loafers or ladies’ men); “nickel-nurser” (a miser); “as busy as a one-armed paperhanger” (overworked); and “Yes, we have no bananas,” which was turned into a popular song. In the New York Times obituary, he was lauded as a popularizer of “a new slang vernacular.”

When I read  that description , the first thing that popped into my head was the tune from "The Music Man " which references young men using slang and wearing knickerbockers ABOVE the knee line "We Got Trouble In River City ". You have very cool and eclectic tastes. This is visually interesting, adds to my knowledge base and makes me smile...

Thanks.  One's man's "eclectic" is another man's attention-deficit disorder. Ha. I definitely follow the Warren Buffett advice: first you have to like it. Strips like this tell their own stories about being of a time. The way things are said, the sorts of clothes. After World War I, all the men still wore their spats. In the mid 1920s, though, King George V and the princes started to appear without any. There are some published stories about piles of unbuttoned and abandoned spats showing up behind the bushes after these events.

So something I like here is the sense that spats are still something that would be commonplace. 

Knowing that this artist was so keen on language adds a bit to its reading when the characters are using terms such as "two bits" ...