Life, 1913-10-30 · page 30 of 40
Life — October 30, 1913 — page 30: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains three satirical humor pieces typical of early 20th-century Life magazine: **"Begging Off"** mocks small-town pride. A stranger asks directions to the best hotel; a local admits he can't recommend it because the stranger will then realize the town's poor accommodations and think the local a liar. **"No Use for Sympathy"** satirizes Yorkshire working-class practicality. A dentist pulls a tooth causing pain in an adjacent healthy tooth; the patient dismissively says to extract that one too rather than tolerate "sympathetic" suffering—rejecting sentimental sentimentality in favor of blunt efficiency. **"A City Lullaby"** ironically celebrates urban noise as a baby's lullaby: street cars, automobiles, steam pipes, felines, riveters, and whistles supposedly soothe rather than disturb sleep. It satirizes modern industrial city life's relentless cacophony. The other content includes a brief joke about finding a compatible church congregation, an image of a WWI-era aircraft, and a Civil War pictorial reference.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
. Begging Off “Can you direct me to the best hotel in this town?” asked the stranger who after sadly watching the train depart had set his. satchel upon the tform, can.” replied the man who was station waiting for a train going the other way, I hate to do it “Why? “Because you will think after you've seen it that Pima Bar, Chicoyo Record-Herald. No Use for Sympathy \ Yorkshireman suffering from ov ache went to a dentist ty have the aching tooth out. The dentist pulled out the ottendi and was then asked to at the double tooth next to it that isa sound tooth,” said th “ The pain is only sympathetic. The Widow: WERE Gol T'VE BREEN dentist “Yank it out, doctor. Hang such sym: pathy,” replied the Tyke—Tit-Bits L KNOW JUST Witext ALONG THIS A City Lullaby Street car clanging c’er attend thee, Automobile toots befriend thee, Noisy steampipe slumber lend thee! Sleep, my pretty one, sleep! Squalling felines aid thy slumber, Riveters thy sense encumber, Whistles soothe thee, any number! Sleep, my pretty one, sleep! Hucksters crying lend thee shrillness, Wagons rattling break the stillness. ard thee from an illness! Jeep, my pretty one, sleep! —Chicago Inter Ocean. Home He had been around from church to church trying to find a congenial congre gation, and finally he stopped in a little church just as the congregation read with the minister: “We have left undone those things which we ought to have done, and we have done those things which we ouxht not to have don The man droppe sigh of relief. “ Thank found my crowd at last.” —Ladies’ Home Journal. into a pew with a odness,” he said, “Ive staves t For Ripeint COMPLETE PICTORIAL UISTORY OF THE CIVIL WAK DUG UP NEAR SUILOM, TE, Delici rarest Fift CHOC — comicbooks.com