Life, 1920-01-01 · page 32 of 48
Life — January 1, 1920 — page 32: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page satirizes "Poisonalities"—pompous, pretentious people who affect an air of mysterious profundity while saying nothing of substance. The text describes them as deliberately slow-speaking, enigmatic types who manipulate through silence and gravitas, corrupting their features with exaggerated expressions to appear wise. The cartoons illustrate the concept: the top illustration shows "The Walking Delegate," a labor union representative rudely interrupting a wedding, having no "union card" to justify his presence—mocking working-class organizers as intrusive outsiders. The bottom cartoon depicts "The Cause of the Feud," where the Smiths and Joneses' friendship dissolves over a note about employment terms—satirizing how trivial grievances and miscommunication destroy social bonds. Together, the page mocks pretentious self-importance and social friction caused by bombastic personalities and working-class agitation in early 20th-century American society.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
32 “We Have with Us To- night” Poisonalities POISONALITY is a Portentous Person with a Perpetual Presence. He or she never allows you to for- get that you are impaled on secret force, an aura or a diation of occult violence by which you are to be re- duced to a zero or crushed beyond recognition. Poisonalities speak slow- ly and deliberately as if ev- erything they utter ought to be poured chipped on between into bronze or marble. word to In the process of unrolling the mystic parch- They pause every allow its marvel to sink ij ment of wisdom they corrugate their brows like a washboard or yodel their throats like a tenor. st, they eye you sternly. Second- from head to still silent; ly, they examine you foot. Thirdly, they are you can hear the silence doing busi- ness; it is a heavy silence, baited with God knows what immensity. At last they condescend to speak. Ssh, listen, if your faculties are not paralyzed by And what is it you hear? Noise and sound, signifying nothing A Poisonality has nothing to say, but Omniscience. The Walking Delegate: sorry To 1 BUT THIS HERE MINISTER he stages that nothing with imperial xrandeur. His is the delicate art of Barnum that makes a What-is-it pay two hun- dred per cent, on the dollar, Poison- alities are members in good standing of the Ancient Order of Bunk, one of THE CAUSE OF THE FEUD THE SMITHS WITH THEIR WERE DINING DEAR FRIENDS, THE JONES! AND MRS. SMITH SLIPPED THIS NOTE TO MARY, THE JONESES’ WAITRESS RRUPT A WEDDIN’, LADIES AN’ GENTS, AIN'T GOT NO UNION CARD the grandest institutions in the world, with headquarters in Wall Street and with branch offices in the “ Business Opportunities" column, and in the outlying districts of “French in Five Lessons,” “How to Improve (Continued on page 37) Your comicbooks.com