Life, 1920-03-18 · page 17 of 54
Life — March 18, 1920 — page 17: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
**The Cartoon:** The sketch depicts four well-dressed women discussing a man named Lieutenant Stone. The joke is a classic self-aggrandizement gag: when asked who said Stone should be a colonel, one woman replies "He did"—meaning Stone himself made the claim. This satirizes self-promotion and inflated self-regard. **The Poem:** "Song of the Native Sons" is a boastful, satirical celebration of California written by Arthur Guiterman. It mocks Californians' tendency toward exaggeration and self-importance. While nominally praising the state's natural beauty and pioneer heritage, the poem undermines itself through absurd hyperbole: mountains are "unquestionably hilly," the climate so healthy that "no one knows why anybody dies," and Berkeley is grandly called "The Nursery of Art." **The Point:** Together, these pieces satirize California boosterism and self-congratulatory rhetoric—the state's (and its residents') habit of making grandiose, often ridiculous claims about their superiority. The tone is affectionate mockery rather than harsh criticism.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
(g' wd ; | Se, \ “THAT'S LIEUTENANT STONE, YOU KNOW, HE OUGHT TO BE A COLONEL.” “REALLY! WHO TOLD you?” “HE DID.” Song of the Native Sons UR fathers drove their teams across the prairies Or came through Panama or ‘round the Horn, Conveying their Penates and their Lares To grace the sacred soil where we were born. They learned the art of washing gold in ditches, They learned the way a miner’s pack is cinched; And some of them won honor, fame and riches, While some of them, we grieve to say, were lynched. They left to us, with milk and honey flowing, The grandest State beneath the starry flag. And if we seem to do a little blowing, The bracing air would make an earthworm brag. Then, there’s our Golden Gate of San Francisco— The greatest port between the Horn and Disco! Our mountains are unquestionably hilly, Our valleys are indubitably green; The Poppy and Mariposa Lily Are quite the sweetest flowers ever seen. Our citizens are cultured, wise and wealthy, And prodigies of honest enterprise Our Climate is so marvelously healthy That no one knows why anybody dies. Yosemite attracts the hardy tenter; The Farallones rejoice the sailor’s heart ; Mount Carmel is The Literary Center, And Berkeley is The Nursery of Art So now, we trust, the joys of California Are plain to every pupil-dotted cornea Arthur Guiterman, comicbooks.com