Life, 1916-09-14 · page 4 of 38
Life — September 14, 1916 — page 4: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains three distinct humor pieces: 1. **Life's Fresh Air Fund**: A fundraising announcement listing donations for a charitable camp program serving poor children—the satirical humor is minimal here. 2. **The "Messy" Joke**: A brief exchange between a Dyer and River about foolishly spending money, illustrated with a domestic scene. The humor is conventional wordplay. 3. **Naval Satire**: Two separate anecdotes mocking naval bureaucracy and protocol. The first depicts a captain explaining the term "messy" to a young woman from Oklahoma. The second shows Admiral Higsaw communicating through wireless channels about a fallen officer—satirizing military chain-of-command redundancy and communication inefficiency. The overall theme satirizes social pretension and institutional absurdity rather than specific political figures.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
432 Life’s Fresh Air Fund of 1915, Lire’s Fees Ain Fuxn in operation twenty-nine years. In that time it has expended $157,493.60 and has given a fortnight in the country to ‘oor city children, d is supported entirely by bequests oluntary contributions, which are ace knowiedged in this column. Previously acknowledged ... «$7,789.20 Mrs. Wm. Warner Harper. 2 10.00 Betty, Jack and Dem season $00 W. B. Harrison... + 644 r. Huntzinger seces, 25:00 ¥. G. Mops + 10.00 John B. Phillips as + 10.00 From the boys at Boothbay Camp, Bath, Me. ... seeee 10.00 $7,865.65 YER: What would you do if you had all the money you have spent foolishly? Ryer: Spend it foolishly. AND HE PERSUADED HER TO BREAK A RATHER IMPORTANT ENGAGEMENT TO GO RIDING WITH HIM Explained fair young maid from Oklahoma was seeing the ocean and the navy for the first time. all just perfectly lovely, captain,” she said, leaning over the rail, “but there are some things that I'd like to have explained to me. What do you mean by the mess/ Vhy, Miss Guthrie,” replied the gallant captain, “that used to be the general term for our table, but of late it has been a code word all down the line signifying the Secre- tary of the Navy, in honor of what he has made of his opportunity,” DERFUL FIGURE AND DAINTY FEET, VLL TELL YOU ALL AROUT IT.” At the Naval Review “(YAPTAIN JIGSAW presents his compliments to Ad- miral Sawbones, and begs to inform him that the Secretary of the Navy has just fallen overboard, sir, and he wishes to know what to do,” said the messenger. “Present my compliments to Captain Jigsaw and tell him to hold matters in suspense until I can communicate with the Department at Washington, I will wireless the first thing in the morning for instructions, and communi- cate the result to Captain Jigsaw before noon,” returned the Admiral. comicbooks.com