Life, 1919-04-10 · page 19 of 46
Life — April 10, 1919 — page 19: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page satirizes overly sentimental or foolish personal advertisements. The top cartoon shows an ostrich absurdly claiming she swallowed her cup and saucer—mocking advertisements that broadcast trivial or embarrassing personal moments. Below, the section "If We Advertised Just for the Fun of It" presents three fictional ads ridiculing common advertisement tropes: a mother boasting about her baby's intelligence, a woman publicly declaring infatuation with "Charley F—," and a tired office boy exposing his boss's actual inefficiency rather than praising him. The final story, "The Fate of Freedom," offers dark satire on naive sentimentality: a woman proudly frees a caged bird, believing she's performing a moral act, only for a cat to immediately catch and eat it. The punchline—"things are going to liven up!"—suggests unintended consequences of well-meaning but thoughtless actions. The satire targets both self-indulgent advertising and misplaced idealism.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
“Ay LY see llne ane Mrs, Ostrich; ou, vEAR! HOW FOOLISH OF ME! I'VE GONE AND SWALLOWED MY CUP AND SAUCER BY MISTAKE! If We Advertised Just for the Fun of It— Without Profit ROP in any day and inspect my new baby. He is the most intelligent human being by far now on exhibi- ion, Bath at 9:30 every morning. A. Motuer. I am in love with Charley F- , and I want all the world to know about it. Strange that I didn’t know I was in love with him until the other day! I thought he was st a nice fellow, rather good-looking, perhaps—but now— oh, he’s so wonderful! Everybody, come and look at my Charley! Manet L- . All those interested in knowing the truth about the head of our firm will please sit in front of his private office daily, where they can hear him through the transom, That he is not the model of business efficiency with far-seeing vision and gentle, quiet voice, is the kind of knowledge about him that you will all eventually become possessed of. Tixep Orrice Boy. The Fate of Freedom HE looked at the feathered songster in the cage. “How cruel to shut you up like that, little bird!” she said, and, opening the door, let him escape. Then she went on her way, happy in the thought that she had given happi- ness to one of God's creatures. Half an hour later a tom cat licked his chops and thanked the unknown donor of his dinner, Willie: Geel THINGS ARE GOING TO LIVEN UP! comicbooks.com