Life, 1919-08-07 · page 11 of 44
Life — August 7, 1919 — page 11: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
**Top Cartoon:** A tourist couple at what appears to be a desert campsite laden with excessive luggage. The caption reads: "Just a moment, please. My wife left her powder-puff in there by mistake." This satirizes tourists of the era as overpacked and dependent on frivolous luxuries even in remote locations. **Main Text Section:** A letter from a U.S. Government literature committee rejecting an author's manuscript. They demand removal of the "love element," deletion of chapters, and elimination of "eccentricities of style"—satirizing heavy-handed government censorship of literature. **Bottom Cartoon:** Two women discussing a man's sudden expertise in silk defense, with caption implying he learned the skill in just one week—likely mocking either false expertise or improbable quick-learning claims.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Tourist Go Celia, Kitchen Bolshevist (Who quitted us abruptly, when we had guests, leaving dinner unserved) H, turn again! We will submit. We will forget the sabotage, The language hurled in thunder-fit, The fierce barrage Of kitchen-ware, your disesteem Of our suburban purlieus rude Your muffins were an artist's dream Of pulchritude— No cubist crudities; your pies. Lyric ambrosial perfection ; Your salads, manna from the skies In moist dejection We view the unwashed sink, the tins Of meats insipid: just abysm Of us who, for our bourgeois sins, Face Bolshevism. We will amend, Whate'er befall, Our censor'd tongues shall not com plain Bonds, chattels, credit—take them all! Ab, turn again! ON: This story says that “Col. Dabney was an old-fashioned gen- tleman.” What is an old-fashioned gentleman, father? Fatner: An old-fashioned gentle- man, my son, is a man who wears sus- Penders and believes in President Wil- Son. JUST A MOMENT, PLEASE. What Next? S chairman of the Committee on Fiction, U. S. Administration of Literature and Art, I have to inform you that we have decided to print your book, but with great alterations. We have eliminated the love element in the latter part, deleted entirely ten to thirteen, modified com- pletely the eccentricities of style in the many places where they occur. You have made an effort to force your own chapters First Débutante MY WIFE LEFT HER POWDER-PUFF IN THERE BY MISTAKE personality into your novel. This is wrong. Remember in any future work that you are writing for the common good, not for the expression of your own individuality. It appears from your unreasonable and absurd request to have your name printed as author of the book, that you are striving for fame, Such selfish You should be happy in silent service. The title of your book will be U.S. ALL. A. Novel No, 123,436. That is all ess is inexcusable. THEY SAY JACKS QUITE AN EXPPRT IN THE AKT OF SEL DEFENSE Second Débutante: WaKvty t MARIE MADE HIM PROPUSE IN JUST ne week! comicbooks.com