Herriman One-Shots: October 20 1901

 

Here's the earliest Herriman one-shot from the McClure comic sections that I have in my files. If the gag makes no sense to you, don't despair, it needs some explanation for modern readers. 

 One of the stereotypes of black men in that day was that they were gambling-mad, and that one form of that pursuit they particularly favoured were the numbers games. The numbers games were also known as the policy racket, and were run out of policy parlors. These were gambling games where you would pick a number, usually between 1 and 999, and then either a drawing would be held to pick the winning number, or some semi-random number, like the last three digits of the stock market close for the day, would be used as the winning number. 

I say it is a stereotype, but it was an uncomfortably truthful one. Some numbers games could be played for mere pennies, and so the games held great appeal to the poor, who for a bit of pocket change could get a chance at a meager but nonetheless attractive jackpot. Who were the poor at this time? Blacks, predominently, plus Irish and Italian immigrants. All were well-known as numbers game players.

In fact, one common feature of black papers well into the mid-century was that cartoons and comic strips often offered up 'lucky numbers' in the panel margins. The same was true for mainstream tabloids, which ran features like Asparagus Tipps, and Figurin' Sam. All this number soup was added to appeal to the numbers players.