Life, 1919-07-17 · page 31 of 40
Life — July 17, 1919 — page 31: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
The top cartoon depicts a **stork (representing childbirth) competing with a man** seated in a chair. The stork complains it "used to do a big business before you came 'round!"—a joke about declining birth rates, likely referencing WWI-era concerns about population. The man appears to represent contraception or family planning methods becoming more accessible, reducing the stork's traditional role in delivering babies. The accompanying text references **Vice President Marshall, William Jennings Bryan, George Creel, and Albert Burleson**—figures from the Wilson administration (1913-1921)—as subjects suitable for satirical mockery, suggesting the magazine's political satire targets contemporary government officials. Below are two unrelated humor pieces: one about a wife's dark joke regarding her husband's life insurance policy, and another depicting working-class dialect humor about discouraging a suitor. The overall page represents *Life* magazine's blend of political satire and domestic humor typical of early 20th-century American magazines.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
THE RIVAL Stork: DARN YOU! 1 USED TO DO A BIG BUSINESS BEFORE YOU CAME "ROUND! self when you think of it, then you may begin to branch out Think occasionally of Vice-President Marshall and of W. J. Bryan. If you should happen to think of George Creel or Burleson, however, and laugh, don’t be too proud of yourself. They would excite laughter in those who have never displayed any sense of humor. After you have taken these preliminary exercises you can get more ambitious. Pretty soon you will be able to smile at the Bolsheviki, at Congress, at our system of finance, at Hearst—even at the drama, the movies and the magazine sections. Just What Did She Mean? EWITT: Jewett: How is that? Hewnt: I told her that I had taken out a twenty-year endowment on my life, and she said that she hoped I wouldn't mature before the policy did. My wife is a cheerful sort of companion. ANITY of vanities! named for W. W. No cigar or horse has yet been “1 GIVE THOT YOUNG FELLER THOT COMES 'ROUND AFTHER MY DAUGHTER A HINT HE WASN'T WELCOME.” “WHAT DID YOU SAY TO HIM? “1 SALD, ‘WHAT THE HELL DO YEZ WANT AROUND HERE?’” comicbooks.com