Life, 1920-04-15 · page 19 of 44
Life — April 15, 1920 — page 19: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
The top cartoon depicts a domestic scene where a new butler is giving notice to his employer, offended at having to associate with someone of unspecified (but clearly lower) social status. This satirizes rigid Victorian class consciousness and the absurd hierarchies of domestic service. The poem below, "Tobacchanalian Song," celebrates tobacco's introduction to England by Sir Walter Raleigh from the New World via Native Americans. It's presented as a humorous, heroic narrative: the "barbarous" Indian chief taught refined European gentlemen—including poet Ben Jonson—to smoke. The irony is clear: Raleigh, the "civilized" explorer, actually learned from indigenous people he would have considered primitive. The poem mocks both colonial attitudes and the European embrace of tobacco despite its "savage" origins, while celebrating tobacco's appeal across social classes (Frenchmen, Dutchmen, woodsmen, Scotsmen). The accompanying illustrations show the Indian chief and various smoking gentlemen, emphasizing this cross-cultural exchange with gentle ridicule.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
New Butler: 1 AM OBLIGED TO GIVE NOTICE, Sik, I HAVE NEVER BEEN EMPLOYED IN AN ESTABLISH- MENT WHERE IT WAS NECESSARY TO ASSOCIATE WITH A PERSON OF THIS Cobacchanalian Song Then back he brought to Albion's shore A gift more worth than glittering ore, The balm that bathes the innermost core With fragrance peace-invoking. Stout Jonson puffed, the roistering Ben, And praised the leaf with generous pen: Its joys were hailed by vigorous men Who set the world a-smoking. The Frenchman sips his minikin roll; The Dutchman loves his porcelain bowl; The woodsman lights his cob with a coal ; The Scotsman puffs it brawly. Then here's to the good old Indian chief Who sowed the seed, who gathered the leaf And gave the pipe that banishes grief To brave Sir Walter Raleigh! Arthur Guiterman, HE \ndian chief was coppery red, He sore no cloth, not ever a shred, He had ro cap to sweep from his head— No fcathered hat nor shako. Sit Water sailed from over the sea, His velvet cloak hung down to his knec; Yet unto that barbarous chief came he To learn to drink tobacco. comicbooks.com