Life, 1915-05-20 · page 21 of 44
Life — May 20, 1915 — page 21: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This satirical article mocks U.S. Customs House officials during wartime (appears to be WWI era, given the baseball season reference). The cartoon contrasts a wealthy man with a $5,000 automobile against a poor man with only $500—illustrating the hypocrisy Life identifies. The satire argues that customs officers, deprived of returning American travelers to inspect during wartime, are suffering from lack of "exercise"—i.e., they miss the opportunity to harass, insult, and brutalize defenseless people. Life sarcastically suggests refined citizens should volunteer to have their trunks searched, letting officials practice their abusive behavior on ladies to keep the "sacred institution" of the customs house functional. The joke: customs officials are portrayed as thugs who *need* victims for practice, implying the system itself is corrupt and predatory rather than genuinely serving security purposes. The contrast between the wealthy and poor travelers suggests customs officers target ordinary citizens while the truly wealthy escape scrutiny.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
“LIFE: 905 by returning they will give their custom house officers an opportunity to’ keep their hands in. This is too much to expect. The danger lies, of course, in the fact that our custom house officers left thas without any defenseless material to work upon may soon become actually pl t. To be brutal, to show your victims your power in the most offensive ways approved by the government, requires, as we know, constant oractice. Is it fair to our custom house to let them lapse? Some of our most sersitive and refined people with good manners ought to volunteer for custom house work, and go through the custom house occasionally with their trunks even if it is only a sham Every custom house official is like a horse to be exercised. He ought to open a couple of trunks a day and have the opportunity to insult a lady, in order that the future of one of our most sacred institutions shall be preserved. HAVE YOU EVER NOTICED—AND WHY IS IT? THIS MAN'S AUTOMOBILE COST FIVE THOUSAND DOLLARS— Is Our Custom House in Danger ? S° busy has everybody beer with the progress of the war and the opening of the baseball season, that the condition in our custom house has temporarily been over- looked by a people who are usually sympathetic. But consider the number of custom house officials who are languishing at the docks because there are no re- turning American citizens to harass and insult! When you have been in the habit of brow-beating de- fenseless strangers, of treating them like common crim- inals, of ripping open their trunks and subjecting them to every indignity, secure in the knowledge that the United States Government is back of you, is it not cruel to have your occupation suddenly taken away from you? It is to pity our custom house officers, many of whom haven't insulted anybody for weeks. The government, it would seem, is powerless, No gov- ernment, in time of war, however honorable its intentions, can send its most respectable citizens abroad in order that COST ONLY FIVE HUNDRED comicbooks.com