Life, 1920-02-26 · page 12 of 40
Life — February 26, 1920 — page 12: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page satirizes Soviet society under communist rule. The main article "Society Under the Soviets" describes a wedding of Miss Murda Inerhart to Mr. Felonious Arson—obviously fictional names suggesting criminality—highlighting the absurdity of Soviet legal proceedings. The bridegroom was a "trial wife" in what appears to be mocking Soviet experimental social practices. The central cartoon depicts a man struggling with income-tax paperwork, captioned as someone "who has been figuring his income-tax problems." This ridicules American tax complexity by implying even communists would find it bewildering. Below, "A Practical Definition" and "The Bolshies" sections offer sardonic commentary on democracy versus Soviet governance, with the Bolshies described as "unkempt, unfettered and unthinking." The overall thrust mocks both Soviet practices and American bureaucratic excess.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
THE PASSING OF LIBERTY, ROMANCE Society Under the Soviets NE of the most important Soviet weddings of the Red winter season took place yesterday, when Miss Murda Inerhart, daughter of Mrs. Venom Inerhart, became the wife of Mr. Felonious Arson. Both young people are members of families socially and criminally promi- nent. As the opening bars of the “Internationale” pealed forth at four vy M. the trial bride, attended only by a maid-of-dishonor, entered the arena. She was gowned quietly in red, and wore a superb pearl neck- lace, the theft of the bridegroom. After the ceremony a deception took place at the home of the bride's mother, and a triple cordon of police surrounded the house to protect the guests from the never-ceasing men- ace of the law-abiding citizen. At the end of the long drawing-room, which festooned with inter- twined bones and forget-me-nots, and banked high with monogrammed metatarsi, the young trial was couple re- ceived their TWILIGHT AND many friends, under a canopy of poison ivy and rare skulls The wedding presents, which were much admired, included a magnificent AS IT SEE FIGURING TO THE MAN WHO HAS BEEN HIS INCOME-TAN PROBLEMS BEAUTY ron solitaire bombholder, sets of old dynamite, pogrom pistols, old- fashioned _ vitriol-containers, stiletto extra guillotine blades, fuse- embossed blackjacks, nitro- wrought ine tabloids and a pair of nineteenth-century —brass- knuckles. down in the family through sev- eral jails. the early that had been handed After a brief tour of manufacturing centres, the bridegroom will re-enter the sa botage business. A Practical Definition DKIN Well, the world is at last safe for democrac Watkins: s anigeray? A democracy is a form of gov- ernment where one party doesn't Just what is democ- do things as they ought to be done, and the other party tclls how much better they would be done if it were in power.” The Bolshies NKEMPT, unfettered and un- hung. comicbooks.com