Life, 1919-06-26 · page 26 of 43
Life — June 26, 1919 — page 26: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains two separate satirical pieces criticizing American government and professionals. **Top cartoon**: "Not the Dinner They Expected to Eat in Paris" depicts congressmen gathered around a dead shark in an elegant dining hall—a dark joke suggesting that instead of enjoying fine French cuisine during what appears to be an official visit, they encounter something grotesque and inedible. This mocks congressional extravagance and foreign travel at taxpayer expense. **Bottom section**: "Behold the Congressman!" is a scathing prose-poem attacking congressmen for: excessive talking and printing worthless Congressional Records; wasteful spending of public money; and being perpetually lawyer-like with "no health in him." It reads almost like a prayer for deliverance from their power and financial burden. **Right cartoon**: A domestic joke where "Uncle George" compares an osteopath's treatment to being manipulated like a shad (fish)—implying the physician was rough and left him feeling battered. The overall theme: government waste, ineffectual representation, and professional incompetence draining ordinary citizens.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
NOT THE DINNER THEY EXPECTED TO EAT IN PARIS Behold the Congressman! HE, Congressman delights in talk; his words issue forth, and no man can say him nay. And the fury of his vocabulary is likewise vented upon the Congressional Record, which no one reads, but which yet is printed. He delights also in the spending of money, which others give freely that he may do so. And of this there is no end. He began as a lawyer, he talks as a lawyer, he continues as a lawyer, and there is no health in him. Deliver us, O Lord, from such an one; keep his ways in silence, and re- move from him his power in the assembl: So may we wax greater, and there- by earn enough to live upon. For we are cast in debt, and our taxes groan upon our heads. “UNCLE GEORGE, DID YOU EVER GO TO AN OSTEOPATH?”” Oh, let the Congressman be sand- “YES, BUT NEVER AGAIN, AFTER HE'D DEEN MANIPULATING MY BONES FOR bagged that all the land may rejoice. TWO MINUTES | FELT LIKE A SHAD.’ comicbooks.com