Life, 1918-06-20 · page 9 of 36
Life — June 20, 1918 — page 9: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
The main cartoon depicts St. Peter at heaven's gates dealing with a new arrival—a heavenly bureaucrat problem. St. Peter must tell someone they'll wait "a couple of years" because there's a "new wing administrator" from the United States who moves slowly on administrative matters. This satirizes American bureaucratic inefficiency and red tape, suggesting that even heaven cannot escape American administrative slowness. The joke implies that American management styles are so notoriously cumbersome that they've infected even the afterlife. The page also contains brief humorous comparison pieces ("Comparisons") and a short story titled "A Complicated Case" about a woman in a New York hotel kissed by an intoxicated man in an elevator, exploring social propriety and masculine thoughtlessness.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
“WELL, WE HAVE A NEW WI Comparisons NDREW CARNEGIE is a pauper —compared to John D. Rocke- feller, Nat Goodwin is a celibate—compared to King Solomon. Chauncey Depew is a youngster— compared to Methuselah. Benedict Arnold is a popular hero— compared to Senator La Follette. The Sphinx is a chatterbox—com- pared to Colonel House. Woodrow Wilson has an easy job— compared to that of Atlas. * A Complicated Case WOMAN who was recently stay- ing in a prominent New York hotel is suing the management because she was kissed by an intoxicated man who was in the elevator with her. She declares that her nervous system re- ceived a shock. A hotel is, of course, bound to pro- tect its guests from a reasonable amount of damage from total strang- ers, but this is a case that cannot be disposed of so easily. Some women would not object to be- TED STATES, AND IT TAKES b. ing kissed by almost anybody. Some women are hard to please. This man probably thought that he was well within the law, because they were both in New York, But undoubt- edly he was too thoughtless. He should have married the woman first. Then, if he had ten thousand dollars, she could easily have gotten it away from him without his taking the trouble to kiss her. ‘T)IDN'T Peggy marry a literary man?” “Dear me, no; he'sa magazine writer.” comicbooks.com