Life, 1914-09-17 · page 17 of 48
Life — September 17, 1914 — page 17: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
**"If Things Were Reversed"** satirizes wartime profiteering and price-gouging. A grocer/butcher cartel representative visits a householder seeking food credit. The householder reverses roles, demanding extortionate prices (potatoes at $10 each, eggs at $500/dozen, roast beef at $50 for three slices). The satire suggests that just as grocers exploited consumers through inflated wartime prices, consumers would exploit grocers if positions were reversed. The householder's final line—"Just give me all you've got and we'll call it square"—mirrors predatory merchant practices of the era. The page also includes lighter cartoons: "A Preliminary Course of Training for Beginners" (golf instruction), and "Lawn Tennis Term Serving to His Weakness" (sporting humor). A brief drugstore joke references wartime shortages. The content reflects WWI-era concerns about merchant monopolies and price controls during scarcity.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
MODESTY If Things Were Reversed AS American Householder was one day quietly eating his frugal noonday meal in the bosom of his family when the bell rang and the maid announced that there was a gentleman outside who desired to consult with “the man of the house”. “Certainly,” replied the American Householder, cheerfully; “show him in. Good afternoon, sir, you are——" “Tam the head of the Grocers’ and Butchers’ War Combination.” “Sit down. What can I you?” “T'm most unfortunately all out of the products I’ve been dealing in and want to know if you will let me have do for a few necessary things to keep body and soul together.” “Delighted. How about potatoes? These you see on the table are ten dollars apiece. Perhaps you would like an egg. I can thoroughly recommend these. They were laid by my own hens—only five hundred dollars a dozen, Try a slice of that cold roast beef at eighteen dollars. Let you have three slices—which I will cut mysclf— for fifty dollars.” The visitor gasped. “You're robbing me!" he growled. “T can't afford it. It's simply impos- sible for me to pay such prices The American Householder smiled sympathetically and said: A PRELIMINARY COURSE OF TTAL BEGINNERS “My dear sir, there really mustn't be any quarrel between us. I love my country too much for that. And I won't be hard on you. I won't ask you to do more than you really can. Just give me all you've got and we'll call it square.” IRST METROPOLITAN DRUG- STORE PROPRIETOR: I see there is going to be a great scarcity of drugs. Seconp Metroronitan Druc-store Proprietor: Fortunately that doesn’t affect us, as we stopped carrying them long ago. LAWN TENNIS TERM SERVING TO HIS WEAKNESS