Life, 1916-11-09 · page 24 of 40
Life — November 9, 1916 — page 24: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This Life magazine page contains three distinct satirical pieces: 1. **"The Great Inefficiency Test"**: A humorous self-assessment questionnaire mocking office workers and husbands. Questions range from complaining about low wages to nagging wives to breathing properly. The joke is that nearly everyone would score high in "inefficiency," inviting readers to laugh at themselves and Life's staff. 2. **Two cartoon vignettes**: - Top: A domestic scene where a wife presents a puzzle to her husband - Bottom: A husband criticized for running over a cat (called "wood pussy," period slang) Both depict henpecked husbands and marital friction—common early-20th-century humor tropes. 3. **"A Is for Author"**: A poem by W.E. Nesom satirizing young writers' pretentions—their desire for fame, imitation of better artists, and particularly their overuse of alliteration. The final stanza's "asinine alliteration" is self-demonstrating. 4. **Political note**: A brief comment on voting for Hughes versus Wilson (likely the 1916 election), suggesting Wilson's personality alone justifies voting for him.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
*LIFE* The Great Inefficiency Test (At tremendous expense, Lire’s own staff of inefficiency experts have prepared this chart by which anyone can de- termine his inefficiency, with surprising results. Put down your percentages, add up the total, divide by ten, and learn just how inefficient you are. Then go and have a good laugh at our expense.) Questions Answers | e P (in per cents) | 1. Do you ever take time off (in work- Pe ing hours) cussing the boss because | he hasn't raised your salary? Do you ever argue with your wife? . Do you breathe regularly, day and night? (Neglect to do this is often fatal.) . Do you visit the club more than one night a week? | 5. Do you ever buy the boss a highball? . Do you forget the smoking-car stories you would fain remember? 7. Do you enjoy spending money? . Do you ever say “I could preach a | better sermon than that"? . Do you ever say “Only four paydays this month”? . Do you take care to walk between your wife and the shop windows? “on! JUST LISTEN, JOHN. HERE'S AN AWFULLY coop Puz2ie.” A Is for Author LL adolescent authors aim At aggrandizement and acclaim, At acquisition, adulation, Awards and ardent admiration; Are apt at amorous affairs, At aping abler artists’ airs, At argument aloof, apart, At apotheosizing Art; And almost all, alas! attain An aptness at (and all arraign As artificial animation) An asinine alliteration. W. E. Nesom, HE are any number of reasons why people should, or should not, vote for Hughes; but there is only one “HENRY, IF YOU HADN'T RUN OVER THAT WOOD PUSSY YOU COULD HAVE reason why they should or should not FIXED IT IN A MINUTE” vote for Wilson, and that is—Wilson.