Life, 1918-07-25 · page 11 of 36
Life — July 25, 1918 — page 11: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
**Top Cartoon:** This depicts a street scene where someone is selling a second-hand automobile. The buyer asks if they have "a second-hand car, as good as new, for about one-quarter what a new car would cost?" The seller responds "Yes'm, we've got just the one you want. It's being towed in now." The satire mocks the used-car sales industry—specifically the deceptive practice of selling damaged vehicles as bargains. The joke hinges on the car needing to be towed in, meaning it's non-functional, yet the salesman still pitches it as a desirable deal. This reflects early 20th-century consumer skepticism about automobile dealers' honesty. **Bottom Section:** "Cheerful Reading" discusses household budgeting and grocery costs, with a separate illustration titled "The Recruiting Sergeant" showing a soldier recruiting figure—likely satirizing military recruitment tactics, though the specific context is unclear from this excerpt.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
CHALE} i i He= i. (8) é | ey “HAVE YOU GOT A SECOND-HAND CAR, AS GOOD AS NEW, FOR ABOUT ONE-QUARTER WHAT A NEW CAR WOULD COST “YES'M, WE'VE GOT JUST THE OD Cheerful Reading father of the large and expensive family was show- eh ing us his literary treasures, his author-autographed volumes, his extra- illustrated copies of the classics, his books bound in vellum and gold, and we worshipped with him, for we, too, were devotees of the cult, members of the mysterious brotherhood of biblio- maniacs. And now he came to the last glass case, and with reverent hands took down an old, dog-eared arithmetic, the covers soiled from much usage. “Yes,” he was saying, “it is in this little book that I find rest and mental refreshment after I have performed the arduous 6rdeal of checking up the household bills for the month, Just listen to this: “*Tf twenty-one pounds of sugar torn, YOU WANT. 11’: can be bought for a dollar what is the price per pound?’ “And here is another choice bit 1 want you to enjoy with me: “*John goes to the grocery store with a one-dollar bill, He buys two pounds of butter at twenty cents a pound and a dozen eggs for eighteen How much change should he Ah, cents. receive?’ gentlemen, those were the happy days! look backward to those good old times, those times that, indeed, seem to have Here is just one more been too good ever to have been true: “Mrs. Smith pays five cents a quart for milk. How much is her milk bill for four weeks if she uses two quarts a day?’ “Yes,” he concluded. “when I have checked up the family expenses for the month Tam a pessimist of the deepest dye. Then I take down this good old comforting arithmetic with its charm- ing chapters on the cost of groceries in 1898, and I get so absorbed in the plot that my troubles vanish into thin air. 'S BEING TOWED IN Now.” Let others have their Mary Roberts Rineharts and their Robert W. Cham- Give me the good old arith- metic which affords the means of escape from the expensive present to the economical past, to the halcyon days when eating was about the cheap- berses. est of indoor pastimes. Modern publishers are overlooking an opportunity, Properly advertised, the ancient arithmetic ought to prove the most popular of all best-sellers. THE RECRUITING SERGEANT