Life, 1919-05-29 · page 27 of 42
Life — May 29, 1919 — page 27: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains social satire about post-WWI American life, likely from the 1920s. **"Distinctions"** mocks women's newfound vanity following wartime contributions. A woman who performed war work now adopts airs of superiority—her source of pride being ownership of a new airplane, a luxury status symbol. The satire suggests women's liberation has made them arrogant and snobbish toward their former acquaintances. **"Sink-Scrubbing Hearts Are Happiest"** ironically celebrates domestic drudgery as artistically superior to creative work. The essay argues that housework provides clear completion and satisfaction, while art remains eternally unfinished and torturous. It sarcastically credits three daily meals with preventing artists from creating (blaming Italian artists' productivity on eating only twice daily). The piece mocks both domestic servitude and artistic pretension simultaneously. **"Inevitable Result"** depicts prohibition-era "joy-killers" (temperance reformers) who've banned all pleasures, including alcohol. A fanatic admits his life is now empty—having eliminated every forbidden indulgence, he has nothing left to condemn. The cartoon figures celebrating "strong drink is raging" suggest alcohol's continued popularity despite prohibition.
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Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
“winrne Distinctions ORE queenly now she casts her eye On gaudy youths as they go by; \ certain haughtiness she wears \s through the stares. window pane she And those she knew a year ago \s well might be in Navajo. \nd what has made the lady vain? She owns a fine new monoplane! HE woman who did her share of war work now plays bridge with 2 far-away look in her eyes. ‘LIFE- 951 Sink-Scrubbing Hearts Are Happiest ] N. serubbing a sink there is always a definite moment in which the sink is scrubbed, in which the sink is clean. It is a high moment. a sink. But where is the moment in which a poem is written? Or music quite transposed? speare content when he had finished “ Hamlet” picture painted? not profounder “ ‘empests ” Let any who doubts this statement scrub Ora Was Shake Were there in his soul than that he wrote? Were the “ Intimations ” Wordsworth gave us all that Immor- tality gave him? complete? hunger in every poet's eyes and a fraud compared to scrubbing sinks. it. I have just se of ammonia; it is clean; it is Is a poem ever finished, a work of art This torture of incompleteness is the Art is a cheat 1 know sink it smells Abbe It shines ; ished. Tam ex- periencing a high moment YN bors IT Go?" Inevitable Result HE. joy-killers had succeeded even beyond their expectations, and every innocent amusement in the land was taboo, It was at this that point an or- dinary human being met a fanatic, and said: “You must be happy, now that’you have succeeded in all your designs.” “On the most un- happ: * Life is no longer worth living, for no one has a pleasure left that I can forbid him to indulge in.” contrary, I'm answered the fanatic. Housework is absorbing: housework Art is not isms connected with housework. is definite, here are no One oes ahead and does things. “1 can- not be expected to write poetry,” 1 say to myself, and feel completely vindi cated, “ when there are heds to be made and floors to be swept and tomatoes to he skinned and set on for dinner and when the mayonnaise won't mix Housework is a complete round. There are no interims in which to write un- finished poems. I am sure it rate artist who invented three meals a day. It is the three meals that make the If we ate but once a was some desp cirele complete. day, or even twice, artists would be driven in on themselves, artists would he driven back to art. Italians eat only two meals a day, and see what they have done in art! It makes me shud- der. Tam glad my cook left me to be married. Her slavery is my emanci- pation: 1 am free of poetry. There is superb about an omelette something & SS TRONG DRINK 1S KAGING” comicbooks.com