Life, 1919-10-23 · page 20 of 36
Life — October 23, 1919 — page 20: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page addresses a **printer's strike** disrupting the publication. The editor explains why the Drama section is postponed—the strike has so compressed available space that adequate theater reviews are impossible. The quote "We go, but we shall return anon, more potent than before" signals temporary suspension of coverage. The illustration depicts an office scene with the caption about opening a bank account. It satirizes **frivolous spending and poor financial priorities**: a woman abandons her banking errand to purchase an antique four-poster bed, then congratulates herself for saving taxi fare—a humorous contradiction highlighting wasteful decision-making disguised as thriftiness. "A Piping Lay" is a separate poem by Mabel Haughton Collyer about water infrastructure, likely unrelated to the strike notice. The page's title image shows a car at night (likely illustrating "burning the midnight oil"—working late).
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
BURNING THE MIDNIGHT OIL By Way of Explanation has always prided itself on its ability to condens its theatrical reviews into small space. There is a limit even to the possibilities of that process. Lire itself is so condensed on account of the printers’ strike, that it would be unjust to our readers and to the many plays offering at this time of year to try to give opinions of the productions in the limited room at our command. As for the Confidential Guide the uncertainties of the time of Lire’s appearance interfere sadly with its reliabilit For these reasons this department will postpone its activities until they can be resumed with greater certainty. “We go, but we shall return anon, more potent than before.” —Metcalfe A Piping Lay RIPPLING rill won't run up hill You have to help it up, you know, With water pipes, of varied types; * Do you deplore to have it so? Why should man meddle with a stream That downward swishes to the sea, And spoil, perchance, a poet's dream Of things as they were meant to be? Oh, let it ripple on and skip Right merrily its purling way Man ruins more bright things galore Than he can ever build, they say And poets must have place to browse! “DID YOU OPEN THAT BANK ACCOUNT THIS MORNING, AS YOU Oh, must they now, indecd? I say! INTENDED TO, ISABEL?" For I like water where I house: “NO, DARLING. AS I WAS WALKING TO THE BANK I SAW To water pipes [ pipe my lay! THE LOVELIEST ANTIQUE FOUR-POSTER AT A BARGAIN —Mabel Haughton Collyer. WASN'T IT LUCKY I DIDN'T TAKE A TAXI?” comicbooks.commy