Life, 1919-09-25 · page 7 of 40
Life — September 25, 1919 — page 7: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This satirical cartoon depicts a social conversation between two well-dressed figures, likely representing upper-class society members. The sketch shows what appears to be a woman and man in formal attire engaged in dialogue. The accompanying text titled "The Innocent Bystander" presents a sardonic exchange about labor strikes and the "High Cost of Living"—referencing early 20th-century economic anxieties. An "Honest Workingman" complains about strikes, but the "High Cost of Living" personified responds that strikes are necessary because workers' wages don't keep pace with inflation. The satire targets wealthy society's indifference to working-class economic struggles, suggesting the affluent remain detached from or unsympathetic to workers' legitimate grievances about poverty wages amid rising prices.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Co a Bore Y friend, you're leaving me per- turbed and sore, Fretful and limp and languid, to deplore How long I've borne with you who are a bore. I marvel how my patience thus endures This placid pertinaci One of our social ills that have no cures. y of yours— I feel ashamed and sick of my pretense To follow you through every mood and sense Of your most egotistic eloquence. When the full flood-tide of your prating flows, I count the pros and contras as it goes— d find the balance strongly with ¢ prose. It is not conversation that you seek, But just for one to listen while you speak, A victim who will turn the other cheek. Relieved of I breathe again, and ponder How truly absence makes the heart grow fonder, Contented to yonder. you forgive—while you are ALS, The Innocent Bystander HE High Cost of Living, saunter- ing along the Highway of Life. met the Honest Workingman, who was very cocky over his latest encounter with Capital. “Congratulate m est: Workingman. “But why are you always going on strikes?” demanded the High Cost of Living. cried the Hon- “Because you make it necessary,” retorted the Honest Workingman. “It's all your fault.” “You boob!” exclaimed the High Cost of Living. “Don't you realize that the more money you get, the more I'm going to tax you?” “T'll take it out of your hide right now while I've got you!” cried the Honest Workingman, swinging his lusty right at the solar plexus of the High Cost of Living, who easily Hed the blow and countered with his left. They were mixing it up at a lively DEBUTANTE DIALOGUES “1 HEAR YOU ANE JACK ARE ENGAGED.” “YES, BUT FATHER HAS REFUSED HIS CONSENT.” “WHEN ARE YOU COIN( clip when there happened by a poor, miserable, shufiling creature, derisively known to the populace as the Man with a Fixed Income. Curious to know what it was all about, he ventured too close, and in his emaciated condition was not sufficiently agile to escape the mélée, the Coroner’s verdict being, “Death from causes unknown.” Moral—From him that hath not it shall be taken away, even that which he hath. TO BE MARRIED? The New Anistocracy LONG of income taxes and other sorrows of that nature, and of the rise in wages, esp hold service, reports come of put up in the kitchen der large country houses: “ Ser Please Not Fee the Guests ally for house- jotices rtments in ants Will YER: Does Wyld like music? Rye: and jazz. No; only popular songs comicbooks.com