Life, 1919-12-25 · page 23 of 37
Life — December 25, 1919 — page 23: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
**The Main Cartoon:** "The Farmer and the Snake" illustrates Aesop's fable—a farmer warms a frozen snake by his fire, and once revived, the snake attacks him. The moral warns against entertaining "traitors," likely a political allegory about showing mercy to enemies who will inevitably betray you. The specific historical reference is unclear without dating context. **The Society Column:** The bulk of the page mocks wealthy American high society through absurdist satire. The names are obvious parodies—"Goldbearing," "Addepose Tyssou," "Dodder Whoopers"—ridiculing the nouveau riche and their ostentatious displays. References to polo, finishing schools, coal mines, and "eight divorces" exaggerate upper-class excess and frivolity. The satire suggests these people are morally hollow, their accomplishments trivial, their wealth obscene.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
THE FARMER AND THE SNAKE A FARMER, THROUGH FITY, BROUGHT A FALF-DEAD SNAKE TO KE WARMED AT HIS FIRE, NO SOONEK HAD THE WARMTH RESTORED THE VIPER THAN IT Bi HOLD, TO ATTACK THE FAKMER’S HOUSE- FOR SUCH INGRATITUDE THE FARMER KILLED THE SNAKE. Moral: BEWARE HOW YOU ENTERTAIN TRAITORS. VERYBODY who is any- body is rejoicing over the probable recovery of Miss Anodyne Goldbearing from her regrettable { prostration due to the recent visit of the Prince of Wales, with whom she conversed » for several moments, Miss Goldbearing has been confined in Dr, Styckyoo’s private sanitarium, where she paid four hundred dollars a week and had every comfort. Miss Goldbearing, it will be remembered, is a grand- daughter of Silas Goldbearing, and a cousin once removed of young Reggie F. Somewhat Pumpkyns, whose polo rid- ing on the occasion of his visit to England before the war was favorably mentioned by King George. Mrs. Addepose Tyssou, whose husband, President Adde- pose Tyssou of the Granulated Grabbe Refinery Corpora- tion, recently made two millions in sugar, was seen going through Central Park in her limousine at four o'clock on Tuesday afternoon. The Dodder Whoopers are having their dining-room done over, and the cost will be five thousand or so more than the estimate. But, as Dodder says, “ This is a dif- ferent world from what it was.” Mrs. Pluto Bulge will give a series of receptions for her daughter, Miss Tessie Bbrowne-Rrobynsoune Pluto Bulge, who has recently been graduated from Miss Twickenham Clacker’s finishing school at Bohrdome-on-Hudson, where she took honors in conjugating several French verbs and in harp-playing. She is the grandniece of Baron Burssting Waade of Penn- Miss Bulge also plays tennis very well sylvania, who owns several coal mines and who upon the occasion of her sixteenth birthday presented her with one- tenth of his yearly profits, amounting to two or three millions or so. Miss Bulge will be chaperoned during the season hy Mrs. Whooper Tootoo Kelling, who has just happily secured her eighth divorce, this time from Count Spagheto Capilina of the Metropolitan Opera House. Mrs. Boodle-Galore is at Palm Beach with her cousin the Hon, Enyole Figure, her nephew Trowsers van Guzzle and Lord Chumly-Mudde of Devonshire. Mr. Boodle- Galore, it is rumored, has gone to his winter camp in the Adirondacks with young Broadstreet Oylestocke and the Earl of Jiggersham, who recently visited in Newport at the house of the Goshwotta Pyles.