Life, 1919-11-20 · page 35 of 46
Life — November 20, 1919 — page 35: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This poem-and-illustration piece satirizes early 20th-century American anxieties about labor strikes and social upheaval. The speaker, exhausted by contemporary "riots and strikes," seeks escape in ancient history—only to discover that labor disputes are timeless. References to "red Bolshevists" and conflicts between "Labor and Capital" reflect post-WWI fears of communist agitation in America. The illustration shows two figures on a park bench, with the woman's caption providing the joke's punchline: society's troubles aren't new. The decorative book-spine header labeled "LIFE" emphasizes that human folly repeats across centuries. The satire's point: modern labor unrest, while seeming urgent, merely echoes eternal human conflict—a consoling but somewhat resigned observation meant to reassure anxious readers that civilization has survived similar turmoil before.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Consolation Loudly I laughed, “Why should folk be When the world’s known all these so serious, troubles that weary us, ne. W RIED of ‘history contempora- Dreading calamities Fate holds in On some ten thousand occasions be- neous store, fore?" Eerton Braley. Riots and strikes of which daily one ink. Th reads— era Seeking distraction in sometk'ng extra- neous, he! 1 began poking through olden-time dive screeds, re Plodding through books of a sage anti- at first Viewing dead centuries out of the past, Thinking, “I'll dodge all these rows pro- { pos ua. letarian, nary tl Here in these tomes I'll forget them at last!" ‘Thus Thad planned out a quiet scenario Made up of annals of monarchs now es dust, const So LT commenced on a_ little-known ~ Pharaoh, : tubes Only to find L was suddenly thrust gists Inte the tale of a strike on a pyramid, "C0. Like, in detail, to the ones we have now N.Y With the king's councilors trying to steer tat amid 7 Labor and Capital, calming the row Angered, | turned to rich Nineveh, Baby- ite lon, Sardis, Jerusalem, Athens and Tyre, eS Finding red Bolshevists urging the rabble on, Fighting about who should hire them, or fire; Learned translations of marks hicro- glyphical, ‘Tablets of stone or papyri of Greek, Hebrew or Latin, or ancient pontifical. Told me of labor wars far from unique Sick and disgusted, I turned from each chronicle, Sighing, “Oh, what is the use, any- way Then, all at once, through my musings ironical, There came a thought that was joyous Lady in Background: WELL, JOUN, WE WERE JUST AS FOOLISH THIRTY YEARS and gay AGO, THANK GOODNESS! comichooks.com