Life, 1917-08-16 · page 9 of 40
Life — August 16, 1917 — page 9: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
The page contains two separate humor pieces: **"The Willowbys' Ward II"** (photograph/illustration at top): Shows a Red Cross nursing lesson where a young woman practices "first aid" on a professor, demonstrating the magazine's satirical treatment of amateur medical training and class dynamics of charitable work. **"A Boston Burst"** and **"Kismet"** (text pieces below): These are brief humorous anecdotes about domestic life. "A Boston Burst" describes a maid's incompetence and household chaos. "Kismet" is bylined by an American humorist complaining about noise from children's activities and his daughter's musical aspirations—satirizing middle-class family life and parental frustrations with modern domestic disorder. The humor relies on relatable domestic situations rather than political commentary.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
THE WILLOWBYS' WARD. 11 BEING INTERESTED IN RED CROSS WORK, A Boston Burst HERE was a young maid of Back Bay, Who became most extremely blasé. While still in her teens She refused pork and beans, And once threw a Transcript away! Kismet AM an American humorist I sit in my little attic room and make merry with a typewriter. On the floor below me my young: est boy is tampering with a small steam engine, which has blown up twice during the past half hour. somewhere in the same ‘ing on a tin pan, with almost un- I have great hopes that she My youngest daughter, region, is pract helievable enthusiasm. will turn out to be a composer of opera. On the first floor my eldest daughter is trying her voice in the music-room. Her voice is very high and shrill, which makes it unusually trying. My old- is in the front yard, tuning up our second- It seems to be badly off key. est b hand touring car. LLY USES THE PROFESSOR TO PRACTICE “ FIRST ALD” ON My wife has just called me to come down and put my finger on a piece of string she is tying about a package that is to go to the heathen in Abyssinia. This will be the fourth string that I have put my finger on since breakfast; but I do not complain The houseman is operating the vacuum-cleaner on the stairs just outside my door. He whistles at his work. He is a beautiful houseman The cook is pounding ice on the stoop bei window, but I-am glad, for I know that we will have ice- cream for dinner, and the children love ice-cream A hurdy-gurdy has just stopped in front of th It is very pleasant to hear the “Star-Spangled Bai played by an old, old hurdy-gurdy on a summer morning. It keeps one’s mind off one’s work Tam an American humorist. Can anyone blame me? my house, nner” “SPHAT man Clark can invent more sure ways of making money than any twenty men I know.” “What's he done now? “ He's opened an employment bureau for kings only.” comicbooks.com