Life, 1920-02-19 · page 40 of 48
Life — February 19, 1920 — page 40: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page combines satire with period advertising. The main satirical content is **"A Bolshevik Love Song,"** which mocks Bolshevik revolutionaries (Russian communists) through crude stereotype. The poem presents a caricatured "Bolshevik" suitor seeking a violent, bomb-juggling wife—exaggerating contemporary American fears about communist ideology and revolutionary violence circa the Red Scare era. The other satirical piece, **"We Have with Us Tonight,"** describes the "Sievelet"—apparently a type of bore who monopolizes conversation and reveals intimate life details to strangers. This is observational social humor about annoying personality types. The page is otherwise dominated by **advertisements** (vacuum cleaners, soap, thermometers, authorship courses)—typical of Life's mixed editorial-advertising format. The small cartoon at bottom shows a man and boy; the caption joke "What are you looking at, mister? The price of eggs" likely references economic anxiety or inflation concerns of the period.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
A Bolshevik Love Song "AIR Rifka, hearken, while [ shriek A serenade in Bolshevik To aid me in my mad career, I need a buxom wife, my dear— A woman who'll co-operate In smashing up affairs of state; Who'll juggle bombs, and flirt with death, And kill, without a bated breath ; Whose carmine lips will laugh when gore Flows freely just outside the door. Ah, maiden, if you'll only try I'm sure that you can qualify And so, fair Rifka, I bespeak Your heart and hand, in Bolshevik! Oliver B. Capelle “We Have with Us Tonight” ards the world as an open-air establishment where the dirty linen is to be washed pub- licly at the brook. He lives in a portable isinglass tent which he sets up in the market place for everyone to see him dress in the morning and un- dress at night. And he is sublimely unconscious that he is doing anything unusual. He would be astonished if you called his attention to his defect, and his astonishment would take the turn of pitying you as not being all there above the eyebrows. The Sievelet is the friendliest of creatures, No matter how big a capi- Free to You We will deliver right into your hands Express Prepaid your choice of any one of the Electric Cleaners oughly in your home before you pay a cent. APEX onto BIG BEN GI CADILLAC EUREKA FRANTZ PREMIER THOR HOT POINT TORRINGTON IMPERIAL VICTOR LIBERTY WESTERN LITTLE BEN ELECTRIC and many other Popular Makes $3.50 after trial Balance on Easy Monthly Payments Wepey express charges anywhere Information and advice freely given. This offer may be withdrawn at any time Send Coupon at Once INA ROYAL SWEEPER VAC VACUUM CLEANER SPECIALTY CO., Inc. 130 W. 34th St., New York,N.Y. Dept. 17C ‘Without obligation send ne complete price list and in- formation on your free trial and easy monthly payments Name, Address ita Tycos? “Thai's the important thing to know in buying, thermometers. x 3 =— Taylor Instrument Companies ROCHESTER NY. There's a Tyeodor Kaylor Thermometer for Every Purpove Cuticura Soap Will Help You Clear’ Your Skin Soap, Ointment , Se. everrwhere.. Sam Fen? PSttncars Laborstoria: Dept 7, Malden, Bosse PS wee, WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING AT, MISTER?” “THE PRICE OF EGGS.” talist_ you are, he still regards you a having some semblance to a human be ing. Some of them have even a Kind word for their landlords. But thy friendship has nothing personal in jt What and who you are, what your joys and sorrows may be, concern him po more than a plot concerns a musical. comedy librettist. The brotherhood of the Sievelet js based solely on the fact that you have a pair of ears into which he em empty, five seconds after mecting you, the entire unabridged story of his life He begins from the time he let out his first yelp up to the moment of his forty-cighth birthday, when he told his wife and the five children that if th didn’t like the way he was doing thing they could all get up and pack, and he'd be darned glad to get rid of them The Sievelet is about as shy asa hoiled cabbage in a boarding house, and just about as dainty. Wherever you go and wherever you travel you come across him. He drops down beside you in a Pullman as if be had known you all his life, and starts in at once to bale out. He unloads every intimate detail of his boresome career, and stops only when he has de- livered every scrap. He lets you know that his son is a lazy, stupid, ungrate- ful idiot, who probably will end up by hecoming a matinee idol or vice-presi- dent. And oh, that woman, his wife! But then what else can you expect from a Perkins? He took her out of a shanty; yes, sir, out of a shanty. Graining for Authorship How towrite, what to write, I and where to sell. Calfiote your min. Delp yourliterary gifts Master the rh of eelf-capression Make lopare inne profitable Fara your ideas wnto dalle. ‘Courses in Short-Story Wat Play Writing, Photoplay 4 Writing, etc, taught perso Dr.Esenwein atty by Dr. J. Berg Eseowein for many years editor of Lippincett’s Magazine, sad fa staff of literary experts, Constructive erties. Frank, honest, helpful advice. 2. | teaching Ove pupil has received ever $5,000 for tore and articles written mostly in epare time—"play wort,” be calle R Another pupil received over $1,000 belore completing her ‘course, Another, « bury wie and mother, ia averaging over $75 a week from pheteplay wring sooe, ‘There is no other institution or agency doing so mac for writers, young or old. ‘The universities recognise this, for over ene hundred members of the Eth ‘We potadh The Writers SOT Wee tah The Weiter emt, SRDS Slee bese ear tng even 150-Page ilastrated catalogue free, Please Ades comicbooks.com