Life, 1920-04-22 · page 12 of 44
Life — April 22, 1920 — page 12: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
**The Cartoon:** Shows military officers and civilians at what appears to be a recreational area (possibly a golf course, given the dialogue). One soldier complains to another about entertaining his wife's cousin, saying he feels "such a fool—spending a whole afternoon simply knocking a little white ball from hole to hole!" **The Satire:** The humor targets the absurdity of golf as a leisure activity—particularly for soldiers, suggesting the tedium and purposelessness of the sport. The soldier's frustration contrasts the pointless recreation with military duty. **The Article:** "Better Neighbors" argues for stronger community bonds. It discusses how good neighbors improve society but are increasingly rare, and calls for more attention to neighborly civic responsibility. **Context:** This appears to be WWI-era content, given military uniforms and the reference to "crippled soldiers" in the visible text, suggesting post-war social concerns about community support.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Jones (who has enlisted his friends to help him entertain his wife's cousin): WELL, HOW DO “OH! ALL RIGHT. BUT, You LIKE IT? KNOW, I FEEL SUC A FOOL- SPENDING A WHOLE AFTERNOON SIMPLY KNOCKING A LITTLE WHITE BALL FROM HOLE TO HOLE!” Washington —June 14 will be cele- brated in the United States as Neighbors’ Day. The slogan will be “Hello, Neighbor!"—News item. GOOD idea, and a good slogan. Neighbors, whether we like them or not, are, like the English sparrow, here to stay. The sooner we recognize this fact the better. Obviously it would not do to abolish neighbors. They are not inanimate objects like rum. They might put up aholler—probably would. But it is high time that we did something about them. Particularly now, when the rent profiteers have pretty nearly everybody on the run. It complicates the neigh- hor problem considerably. Neighbors are here to-day, gone to-morrow. It Better Neighbors is hard to tell much about them. But whether we achieve neighbors or have neighbors thrust upon us, it is desir- able on both sides to have neighbors know. their neighbors who have felt the uplift of the better- neighbor movement and have heen bet- tered by it. Of course we cannot all have neigh- who business, bors whose minds will go along with ours. But we can have neighbors whose lawn mowers will cut grass just a trifle better than ours, and such neighbors are in con- stant demand. Unfortunately, such neighbors are all too few. Nothing like enough of them to go around. We need more. Quantitatively, the output of the neigh- These are very rare. bor industry is all that any fair-minded citizen could expect. Qualitativ has fallen short. America to-day is overridden with neighbors, but the gen- eral average is low. What we need is not more neighbors, but better neigh bors and more and more of that kind If one day a year devoted to the up lift of the neighbor within our gate will help toward that end, no one wil! begrudge the time thus spent. Nor car there he any legitimate objection to the colloquialism, “Hello, neighbor,” on such an occasion. i HAT are we doing for th crippled soldiers?” “Binding up their wounds with re: tape.” comicbooks.com