Life, 1919-08-28 · page 27 of 40
Life — August 28, 1919 — page 27: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This 1920s satirical page contains three distinct commentaries on American life: **"Now for the Big Scramble"** (top left): Depicts economic hardship during high inflation. A man describes repeatedly resoling worn shoes and repurposing old pants—commentary on post-WWI cost-of-living crisis forcing working people to extend clothing life through repairs. **"In These Days of High Prices"** (top center): A conversation about necessity driving reuse, with similar themes of economic strain. **"Motors and Life"** (right): An analogy comparing traffic navigation to life's obstacles. Vehicles mysteriously arrange themselves allowing safe passage—suggesting life's apparent impossibilities somehow resolve themselves naturally. **Bottom illustration**: A humorous proposal: since New York and New Jersey legislators cannot agree on building a Hudson River bridge, why not use an absurdly steep ramp? This satirizes real bridge-construction debates of the era and governmental gridlock. The overall theme: American life in the 1920s involved economic anxiety, pragmatic survival through reuse, and frustration with bureaucratic incompetence—alongside unexpected resolutions.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
“LIFE: What Goeth On at Present QO N EE conreon NOW FOR THE BIG SCRAMBLE IN THESE DAYS OF HIGH PRICES See those shoes? I've had ‘em half TERL in newspapers is under- ded three times, and they're going to be WO and three-quarters per cent ; ain when they need it going a slow process of decay. The That's nothing. These pants | have heer seems very harmless. To habit of looking to them every morn- on were wor three years at colleg by make a drunk come with beer of such A he omy oldest expect to Ket excel ing for news of enormous significance }0%,°"! aot thee thie coming still abides, but they no longer produce winter matter of complicated calculation like limited potency as that would be a the goods. harnessing the tides Motors and Life N traveling along a road in a motor car, there will be several cars ahead of you going your way, and there will he several cars coming towards you. Als you, going your way, there may be a hay wag farmer in a buggy. As you speed along, you look ahead and declare to yourself that there is no logical way in which you can get through the spaces thus created. Yet the vehicles always form themselves into the right com- bination, and you pass through easily. This is the way with life. There are always obstacles that you do not see how you can pass without a smash-up. But you always get by. IF NEW YORK AND NEW JERSEY LEGISLATORS CAN'T AGREE ON A BRIDGE, WHY NOT RELIEVE HOLIDAY CONGESTION OVER ALITTLE STUDY IN CAUSE AND EFFECT THE HUDSON IN THIS WAY? comicbooks.com