Life, 1919-11-27 · page 22 of 36
Life — November 27, 1919 — page 22: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
**Top Cartoon:** A domestic humor sketch mocking class pretension. A mistress questions her new maid (Norah) about finger-bowls—an etiquette item signaling upper-class dining. The maid's response—that servants at her previous employer's house washed their hands before eating rather than using formal finger-bowls—is the joke: it suggests the mistress's obsession with genteel refinement masks lower-class origins or that the "refinement" is unnecessarily fussy. **Bottom Article & Cartoon:** Satirizes Sir Oliver Lodge, a real spiritualist who claimed to communicate with the dead through séances. The text mocks him sardonically: spirits supposedly smoke cigars and wear clothes (suggesting spiritualism is absurd), and questions why he'd travel to America when he could project his "astral body" instead. The accompanying auto cartoon labeled "ON STRIKE" likely jokes about labor unrest or modern inconveniences—possibly contrasting with Lodge's otherworldly concerns.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Mistress: you DON’T SEEM TO KNOW ABOUT FINGER-BOWLS, NORAH. PLACE YOU WORKED? Maid: ‘No, MA‘aM. A Doubtful Experiment I is announced that Sir Oliver Lodge will visit this coun try in Je ry, for the purpose of permitting his mun- dane boc artake of some of our many and varied allurements. Sir Oliver achieved his first distinction in science, his discoveries and pronouncements in this region of alleged thought giving him a__ first-hand reputation. Having placed science in a comfortable position, where it would receive proper attention from the lowbrows, he interested himself in the other world, and introduced it to many people who had not even heard of it before. He is at present at the head of a trained band of spirits, who smoke spiritual cigars and even wear clothes, which is at least one indication that the cost of living on the other side has not grown too prohibitive. But why Sir Oliver Lodge should care to visit America, when he can sit quietly at home and receive communica- tions from almost anywhere in space, is a matter for speculation. Travel in these days is so high, not to speak of the pl ical inconvenience, that the better way is to send one’s astral body about. An astral body, with a little practice, can be projected from New York to Calcutta in a fraction of time. DIDN’T THEY HAVE THEM AT THE LAST THEY MOSTLY WASHED THEMSELVFS RFFORE THEY CAME TO THE TABLE. “LJOW many nights u week do you want out?” **How many do you, ma’am?” ON STRIKE comicbooks.comypy