Life, 1919-09-25 · page 24 of 40
Life — September 25, 1919 — page 24: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This satirical article mocks the Federal Council of Churches' plan for a Pan-Denominational office building in New York. The humor targets religious denominations' perceived incompatibility and pretensions. The superintendent recounts absurd accommodations required: Episcopalians demand a private elevator (suggesting class consciousness); Baptists need a swimming pool in the basement (caricaturing their baptism practices); Presbyterians relocate due to noisy Methodists (implying behavioral differences); Seventh-Day Adventists settle on the roof (marginalizing them). Congregationalists insist on ground-floor offices, while Christian Scientists get fancy offices they ignore (mocking their philosophy of spiritual healing). The joke: despite promoting "closer relations," each denomination's peculiar demands and incompatibilities make cohabitation nearly impossible. The satirical point is that doctrinal and cultural differences make interfaith cooperation fundamentally impractical, no matter the building's architecture.
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Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
550 When Good Fellows Get Together The Federal Council of Churches is considering the erection of a t building in New York to house the offices of the various denomina tions under one roof, and thereby promote closer relations. s item A COUPLE of weeks after the opening of the new Pan-Denomi- national office structure | ran across the superintendent of the building and inquired how the scheme was working out “Oh, fairly well.” he replied. ~ We have had to make a few alterations, but that was natural. First thing, the Episcopalians demanded a private ele- vator—said they didn’t feel they could use the common lifts. They wouldn't travel in the other elevators, and yet they had no objections to the other fellows traveling in theirs. So now we're running an Episcopalian express Then the Baptists kicked about. the plumbing arrangements—said they had to have a swimmin’ pool in the base ment, although the Presbyterians were satisfied with showers. Well, we got that fixed, when the Presbyterians wanted to change their floor because the Methodists were making so much noise, shoutin’ and prancin’ around, they couldn't hear themselves think So we shifted the Presbyterians and their blue silk-covered furniture from the tenth to the eighteenth. “Then at the last minute, after all the space was gone, we had to find a place for the Seventh-Day Adventists. We fixed 'em up on the roof, made a Gitlin WILY LET THE SOLDIERS MONOPOLIZE INSIGNIA? a regular roof-garden, and they were tickled to death. It's funny folks. Now the Congregationalists insisted on being on the ground fle said they always got in on the ground floor. we let “em have it. The Christian Scientists puzzled me, Fixed up the finest set of offices you ever saw, all mahogany and Oriental rugs and ained-glass windows, and the clerks hardly ever come hear them. One of ‘em said they gave their jobs the absent treatment.” “But wasn't there an accident or something? “Oh, that was the fellow who didn’t know what kind of a building this was, and started in at the top floor trying to sell the complete works of Robert G, Ingersoll in nine Ym— 7 volumes. He was taken to the hospital in an ambulance. Motorist (to farmer): axy juice AROUND HERE? Well, good-by. I’ve got to run along now.” And he hustled “WAAL, THERE'S SOME COHENS UP THE ROAD A WAY.” back to the busiest job in New York. comicbooks.comm{"