Life, 1917-12-06 · page 31 of 92
Life — December 6, 1917 — page 31: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains a satirical Christmas story that mocks modern apartment living. The cartoon above illustrates children playing in snow; the story below parodies traditional Santa tales. The satire targets early 20th-century urban apartment buildings ("St. Glorious apartments"), which lacked chimneys—rendering Santa's conventional method of entry obsolete. Santa encounters absurd obstacles: he lands in a basement furnace, nearly gets attacked by a janitor, travels via dumb-waiter, and is growled at by a Pomeranian dog. When he finally finds young Edwin Mennibucks, the boy arrives home at 4 AM, implying modern children keep late hours. The joke is that Santa's traditional Christmas magic cannot adapt to contemporary city life and its complications. The story presents this collision between nostalgic holiday convention and modern urban reality as inherently comic, suggesting readers would recognize how thoroughly industrial apartment living has disrupted time-honored customs.
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Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Christmas Life CHRISTMAS EVE—FRIENDS IN NEED The Amaing Visit A Conventional Christmas Tale Brought Up-to-Date T was the night before Christmas, and Santa Claus was running fran- tically around the roof of the St. Glorious apartments, vainly hunt- ing for a chimney to suite forty-sir the residence of little Edwin Menni- bucks, who had been recommended to him by trustworthy scouts as a good boy, deserving of something rather generous in the line of gifts. At length, seeing nothing to guide him to the apartment, he plunged down the largest chimney in sight. A few seconds later he landed in the fur- nace in the basement of the St. Glo- rious apartments. By the time he had opened the door and crawled out, the glowing coals had singed his beard and seriously damaged the muskrat fur on his red coat. Startled by the strange apparition, the janitor was on the verge of hitting Santa on the head with the business end of his coal shovel. Fortunately, however, he recognized him in time and stayed his hand. “Where can I find a good little boy named win Mennibucks?” — in- quired Santa Claus brusquely, having been somewhat upset by the delays at- tendant on getting into the apartment house. “On the eighth floor,” replied the janitor. “I'll send you up in the dumb-waiter, and good luck to you.” A few moments afterward Santa Claus crawled from the dumb-waiter and entered the Mennibucks’ apart- ment. He was a trifle annoyed by the Mennibucks’ Pomeranian, who sniffed and growled in embarrassing proxim- ity to his legs; nor was his temper sweetened by the discovery that the Pomeranian was the only representa- tive of the Mennibucks family who was at home. Curbing his impatience as best he could, Santa Claus divested himself of his pack and took a seat on the divan in the living room. Here he gave him- self over to meditation and to combing the soot out of his beard. He had made up his mind to check up the work of his scouts, by finding out whether or not Edwin Mennibucks was really a deserving lad. The hands of his watch pointed to half after ten. Wherever Edwin was, he would soon return, The gentle passage of his fingers through his beard was very soothing, and before ten minutes had passed, a long, raucous nasal suspira- tion showed that he had fallen asleep. Six hours later he awoke with a start to find a weary-eyed boy regard- ing him with some curiosity. “Oh—ah—how do you do?” said Santa Claus genially, picking up his pack. “Are you Edwin Mennibucks?” “Yes,” replied the boy. “I see you're nta Claus. How did you get in?” “Aha!” exclaimed Santa Claus comicbooks.com