Life, 1919-08-21 · page 23 of 40
Life — August 21, 1919 — page 23: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains satirical content mocking Prohibition-era social reforms: **"The State of the Nation"** dialogue satirizes the overzealous regulatory movement of the 1920s. It presents a fictional bureaucratic expansion where government agencies exist for increasingly absurd purposes—homes for "moderate drinkers," asylums for coffee drinkers, clinics for chewing gum addiction, and an "Association for the Suppression of All Human Desires." The Anti-Saloon League leader's cheerful bulletin mocking such institutions suggests satire of Prohibition's zealotry and social control ambitions. **The lower cartoon** shows two men discussing cigars, with the joke being that one's cigars are so terrible, the other questions whether they're actually cigars at all—likely a jab at wartime substitutes or black-market quality. **"The Making of a Pioneer"** biographical excerpt humorously traces a man's constant relocation across America, emphasizing post-WWI housing shortages and domestic instability as defining characteristics of modern American life.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
To a Wee Lady ADY of the lyric name, Take the homage of my heart I would sing you into fame If my lips but had the art. But your baby dimples seem Far too fair and fine Even for a poet's dream, Sweet Camelia Mary theme Had I but the skill to tell Half the truth, Your Ladyship, I should write a villanclle To each rosy finger tip Then, perhaps, I should compos Sonnets to your tiny toes And your cunning little nose, Sweet Camelia Mary Could I please you, baby dear, Singing in a minor key, You with soul attuned to hear Heaven's golden poetry, I should set my heart anew To the good, the And he laureate to you. Sweet Camelia Mary. air, the true, rrin Holmes Lowrey. The State of the Nation “IS the Home for Aged and Incor- rigible Moderate Drinkers well filled?” “It is, si “Ts the Care and Tre: dicts crowded?” “To the doors, sir “And the Asylum for the Observa- Confirmed and Coffee Drinkers, what of it Federal Institute for the ment of Tobacco Ad- tion of “All wards filled and a waiting list hesides, sire.” “And the Re-education of dicts?” “ Flourishing, sire—not a cell empty “And the Association for the Sup- pression of All Human Desires and Minor Vices, how goes it with them?” National Clinic for the Chewing Gum Ad- “Splendidly, sire. Their agents are in every hom “Good,” said the Past Grand Mas- ter and High Exalted Leader of the Anti-Saloon League, and he dictated the following bulletin to his constitu- ents: “The American people passed a comfortable night, ald are doing as well as could be expected.” Sam: 4 YOU'D BETTER STICK TO YOUR FLIVVER AND NOT MONKEY Wirit A REAL CAR The Making of a Pioneer SCERPT sketch in the Congressional Direc- 1960 : Yilson Pershing Smith, Democrat, born July 28, Sioux City. Iowa, where his mother had gone to spend the period of the house shortage with her parents, his father remaining im Cleveland, where he lived in a room furnished with only the When the three weeks old he removed with his from a biographical toto, in bare necessities. subject was mother and grandparents to Des Moines, the Sioux City lease having Niter Moines with the been canceled on his arrival. six months in Des family of an aunt, he was taken to Indianapolis, where a modest but com fortable three-room flat was obtained at a rental of ten thousand dollars At the twenty-two relatives in fe of seven, after living with and seventecn states, he was taken to Cleveland, where father had suc- ceeded in finding a house. Mac: I'M SMOKING A TERRIBLE LOT OF CIGARS LATELY! Jack: YOU CERTAINLY ARE, IF THAT'S ONE OF THEM! comicbooks.com