Life, 1911-12-07 · page 37 of 112
Life — December 7, 1911 — page 37: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page satirizes the *Pessimists' Club*, a fictional organization dedicated to rejecting Christmas cheer. The main text mocks those who use the holiday to escape life's miseries, arguing instead for constant, unrelenting sadness as "logical honesty." It's absurdist humor critiquing both naive optimism and contrived cheerfulness—suggesting that temporary joy followed by redoubled sorrow is worse than accepting perpetual gloom. The bottom cartoon is a simple ethnic-stereotype joke: a salesman (depicted with exaggerated dialect speech) misunderstands an art student's request for camel-hair brushes, bringing "lion brushes" instead and suggesting a toothbrush "for de camel." The humor relies on the salesman's supposed stupidity and comedic ethnic characterization typical of early 20th-century American satire.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
PEACE ON EARTH AND GOOD WILL TOWARD ALL fellowship and all that sort of rot. Our Christmas cele- bration will, therefore, be held with the firm intention of protesting against the inward spirit as well as the out- ward form of this alleged cheerful season, which seems to hypnotize everyone. At this Christmas season every true member of the Pes- simists’ Club should bear in mind the following: That all is delusion. That smiling faces at Christmas time cover innumer- able worries. That every present is a bribe. That every Christmas dinner will have its aftermath of sorrow and woe. That to ferget our troubles temporarily during this sea- son only means that in a little time they will all come back with redoubled ferce. We are aware, of course, that many people already “Every Christmas dinner will have its aftermath” realize all this in their hearts. The object of our celebra- tion this year will be to impress it upon them all and to face the actual truth. This idea of madly trying to forget ourselves once a year is deplorable; while, of course, we suffer afterward and thus make up for it, at the same time the object of the Pessimists’ Club is not to permit any such alternating periods of joy and sorrow. We believe that there should be a dead level of sad- ness, which no sudden forgetfulness can change. It is only by this continuous and unyielding despondency that we can face the dismal future with any degree of logical honesty. When we think of all the cheerfulness in the world, we must confess that we only feel worse about it; in fact, it all looks dark, either way. Our Christmas celebration will open with a funeral march; the name of the march will not be revealed in ad- vance, however, on account of the objections that would probably be raised by those who would want something else. Publications to date: The Delusion Called Hope. Facing Things, Groucher’s Manual. Complete Pessimist. Prices on application An Order OUNG LADY ART STUDENT (entering a ten-cent store) : Do you keep camel’s-hair brushes? Satesman (aside): Ikie, bring up dose lion brushes dat we ordered for de circus people. (To Lady): And, madam, vould you like a,toothbrush ? Art Stuvent (indignantly) : What for? “For de camel!” comicbooks.com