Life, 1915-03-11 · page 21 of 48
Life — March 11, 1915 — page 21: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This 1910s Life magazine piece defends plumbers against a long-standing joke tradition in American humor. The editorial criticizes how plumbers have been routinely mocked in newspapers and comic sketches, attributing the "plumber joke" tradition to writer Charles Dudley Warner's story *Plumbers*. Life argues plumbers deserve respect: they charge fair prices, don't waste customers' time, and perform essential services. The accompanying cartoon shows a plumber finally being treated with dignity at a formal dinner, rather than hidden under tables or ridiculed. The piece's irony lies in mocking the very joke tradition it discusses while advocating the plumber's rehabilitation from American popular culture's contempt. The "Diplomatrix" cartoon above jokes about awkward social situations during WWI—a parallel to the plumber's social awkwardness being finally overcome.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
a A Diplomatrix > i The“ neutral” but nervous [ss Creer 2d Pes! Tnvented a dining-room screen So that Britons and Russians, at table with Pindar Could eat, “without mating a scene — The Plumber Coming to His Own N an editorial entitled “ Newspapers and Plumbing Jokes” Domestic Engineering says: “The so-called funny sentiment conveyed by certain jokes tends to contaminate the popular point of view, and thus erroneous concep- tions develop and increase. . . . “Go to the editor of the local paper for which you subscribe or in which you advertise. Tell him you will supply him, once a month, with a half-column news-story about the plumbing business, written in entertaining newspaper style and in- forming his readers of the valuable service which the plumber renders to the community.” We agree with Domestic Engincer- ing about the abused plumber, and are most glad to spread the news of his near emancipation from the joke column, Plumbers, it seems, have been much maligned. They do not charge fancy prices. They do not waste the time of their customers. There was a story printed not long ago of a noble plumber who, called in by a Washington society woman to fix the electric bell under the table, was pre- maturely surprised during his work by the entrance of the guests and remained cramped up under the table during the entire dinner. Any plumber who will do that has a deathless fame. Unless we are mistaken, it was Charles Dudley Warner who first started the plumber’s joke going in this country, in his short sketch en- titled Plumbers. Since then this joke has supported whole families, It has aided the poor printer (himself abused and maligned) to close up many a form. No doubt, too, it has done a certain amount of service in keeping straight the wabbly morals of some few plumbers who might have been tempted to charge more than they should had they not been made hum- ble and heart-searching by the unseemly jests of the professional humorist. And so we say, “God rest the soul of the plumber’s joke.” After all, it was only a pipe- dream, comichooks.ceyn)