Life, 1919-03-06 · page 10 of 42
Life — March 6, 1919 — page 10: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This Life magazine page satirizes the Prohibition era (note the "BONE DRY" figure riding the U.S. map). The poem by Cyril B. Egan mockingly celebrates "dry weather" and calls for alcohol-free alternatives like grape juice, sarcastically praising "uninfected cheer" and "sweet sobriety." The accompanying illustrations include a figure straddling America with prohibition signs, and a large gathering labeled "1919 ANNUAL DINNER OF THE AMALGAMATED LIQUOR DEALERS' PROTECTIVE ASSOCIATION"—suggesting liquor dealers were secretly convening despite Prohibition's legal onset (1920). The satire targets both Prohibition advocates' unrealistic idealism and the hypocrisy of those in the alcohol industry supposedly affected by the impending ban. The nostalgic tone mocks those mourning alcohol's loss.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
358 “LIFE: Drinking Ditties (Re-edited for an Aquafortified Public. Apologies Omar Khayyam, Old Colleye Song and John Keats) SHEAF of Temp'rance Tracts beneath the Bough, A Lemonade, some Ginger-Snaps—and Thou Chautauquaing to me in the Wilderness O, Wilderness were Paradise enow! } , ‘ | For it's always dry weather When Blue-Ribbons get together, With near-wine on the table And a bottle of near-beer! For it’s always dry weather When Blue-Ribbons get together— To Bill Bryan, while you're able, Drink an unfermented cheer! Oh, for a draft of grape-juice that hath been Purged of all spirits that provoke to mirth, Tasting of temp'’rance, the Chautauqua-green, Dinwiddie and psalms and sober worth! Oh, for a beaker of the arid South! Full of the brew of blushless, modest, clean we Hz and O and wholesome celeree, SAN hp ul gh S by That I may slake my drouth— cy That I may drink and to the world be seen A pattern pure of sweet sobriety. “There’s no place (else) like home” Cyril B. Egan. q 1919 ANNUAL DINNER OF THE AMALGAMATED LIQUOR DEALERS’ PROTECTIVE ASSOCIATION comicbooks.com