Life, 1919-08-14 · page 10 of 44
Life — August 14, 1919 — page 10: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page satirizes government censorship of entertainment and morality regulation. The top cartoon ("The Tug of War") depicts competing forces pulling on a clock, representing the tension between different regulatory bodies controlling romantic content. The story below mocks the bureaucratic apparatus surrounding courtship: Archibald Hennessey must obtain government approval to propose to Annabelle, navigating multiple "Committees on Restraint of Natural Impulses" and other absurd censorship bodies. He needs doctor's certificates, tax receipts, and official permission slips. The satire targets the anti-obscenity and "purity" movements of the early 20th century, which sought to regulate human behavior through governmental oversight. The elaborate bureaucratic machinery makes romantic love impossibly complicated, ridiculing these movements' invasive control over private life and natural human impulses.
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Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
THE TUG OF WAR cense enabling him to ask Annabelle’s parents and the Personal Mentor ap- pointed by the state to guard her, if he might not propose to Annabelle. Annabelle’s parents and Mentor gave Archibald their blessing. Then, armed with doctors’ certificates of his good health and receipts from the revenue collector for the payment of his en- tertainment and existence taxes, and fortified by the approval of the Gov- ernment Committee on the Mating of the Se Archibald, in accordance with the carefully prepared form is- sued by the government for guidance in this act, popped the question. Anna- belle blushed sweetly, and looked questioningly at the duly assembled multitude of Censors, Inspectors and Committcewomen from the Committees on Restraint of Natural Impulses, Betterment of the Race, etc. The mul- titude nodded assent, “Yes,” whispered Annabelle, coyly, “LAST NIGHT 1 DREAMED I PROPOSED TO A BEAUTIFUL GIRL!” “AND WHAT DID 1 SAY, DEAR?” A Modern Love Story Written in Accordance with the Ma dates of the Anti-Hugging Leag: Anti-Joyousness Society and Anti- prything-Human Association. CHIBALD HENNE: with the written consent of Anna- Lelle Higgins’ parents, escorted her bi- weekly to the approved and properly censored movie shows, conducted under the auspices of the Old Maids’ Home. The duly appointed Assistant Censor of Pu Morals had sat between Archibald and Annabelle at these de- lightful little airs, and had firmly but kindly squelched Archibald’s un- sanctified and unrestrained passion in calling Annabelle, on several occasions, “ Peaches” and “ Honey Under these beautiful circumstances, the charming romance ripened fast At last Archibald obtained from the government courtship bureau, after the payment of the customary fee, a li- THE BABES IN THE WOOD comicbooks.com