Life, 1919-10-30 · page 14 of 36
Life — October 30, 1919 — page 14: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page combines a poem about **gratitude toward domestic servants** with a daily-life comic strip and satirical commentary. The poem addresses an unnamed servant ("tried and trusty platitude"), expressing dependence on their labor while simultaneously complaining about their ungrateful nature and laziness. The speaker admits overworking them and notes their "colorless" thoughts—a paternalistic view typical of early 20th-century employer attitudes. The accompanying comic strip shows a **wealthy person's typical day** (breakfast, toilette, work, lunch, leisure), illustrating the leisure class lifestyle made possible by servants' labor. The bottom cartoon mocks the Ford Model T's popularity, showing how the "new car seems after the Ford"—suggesting inferior imitations. A sidebar story criticizes a milk dealer's price increase, reflecting working-class economic anxieties of the era.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
We Have Always with Us— ITH boundless love and gratitude I view the juicy plati- tude, And serve it every A A | morning As a breakfast appe- tizer If piquant words embellish it The other boarders relish it It always makes a hellish hit— And they are none the wiser. Oh, tried and trusty platitude, You are my best beatitude! I take you daily to my work And use you on the boss. If I should give him something new He'd hardly know the thing to do, And so I must resort to you. {| You always get across! | Oh, trite, insipid platitude ; 48 At home in every latitude, ASN In Sitka and in Singapore ] z I take you out to lunch. I overwork you I confess, | | And yet, my thoughts were colorless PH Without you, and they now possess - Slan and verve and punch. 12+*Loncheon at the Clcb And so I strike an attitude. And flaunt the paltry platitude I go through life a vassal To its tender tyranny. It pleases everybody quite They think my conversation bright, And say with evident delight, “Such brains and subtlety!" And so I give my gratitude 200+ The Whistle To you, oh hac yed platitude! T use you on the folks I meet . And they are none the wiser At dinners I were lost indeed . Were you not there to serve my need And so I hold you as a creed— And spout you like a geyser! —Perrin Holnes Lowrey. As we grow older, our enjoy- ment of the simple becomes more complex Self-Protection “TEN cents for a gle milk is an outri claimed the irate omer “You never used to charge me more than five.” “I know I didn’t,” said the proprietor of the dairy lunch- room, “but I was forced to raise my price because of the high-handed action of my milk dealer. He raised me a cent a THE WAY THE NEW CAR SEEMS AFTER THE FORD quart.” comicbooks.comm