Life, 1920-07-08 · page 14 of 40
Life — July 8, 1920 — page 14: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
The top cartoon satirizes a visiting foreign dignitary's exhausting American tour. The schedule shows the celebrity mobbed by press, flower committees, and commercial interests—signing contracts, posing for photographers, appearing at theaters and museums. By Monday the visitor departs "for the interior," never to be heard from again. The satire mocks how Americans commodify and exhaust foreign visitors through relentless publicity and commercial exploitation. "The Tearful Toad" below is a humorous poem about a weeping toad lamenting bankruptcy during what appears to be Prohibition (referencing beer sales), paired with cartoons about urban displacements and social transformation. The "Transformation" illustration suggests changing class and living conditions in 1910-1920 America.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
IF GREAT-GRANDPA HAD BELONGED TO A BELL-RINGING UNION “RING, GRANDPA, RING! OH, RING FOR LIBERTY!” WE'RE ON STRIKE!” The Tearful Toad MET a weeping toad to-day, And bitter were his woes. I paused a moment on my way, As tears coursed down his nose. “Oh, tell me, toad,” quoth I, “I pray, Why art so lachrymose?” “T can’t restrain this acrid tear,” Sobbed he with streaming chops, ‘or bankruptcy’s my lot, I fear, Despite the best of crops, For since there is no sale for beer I cannot sell my hops!" John Kendrick Bangs. Ambiguous IRST NEW YORKER: I hear that Bulger is now jn the street. Seconn New Yorxer: Wall Street, or has he been evicted by his landlord? MMIGRATION is the sincerest form of flattery. ~LIFE- The Schedule of a Foreign Celebrity ONDAY—Arrives in New York. Deluged with flowers, reporters, photographers and Mayor Hylan’s Official Com- mittee of Welcome. Spends day giving impressions of United States, signing autograph, looking out of window of his apart- ment on the thirty-seventh floor of the Hotel Brontosaurus, smelling flowers and posing for Associated Press. Retires carly Tvuespay—Receives representatives of fourteen motion-pic- ture companies. Signs contracts with all. Takes luncheon on top of Woolworth Building with Aerophobia Association Spends rest of day at theatres as guest of the Society for the Prevention of Vice. Bulldog edition Wednesday morning newspapers carry interview, “Your American women are charming.” Wepnespay—Goes to Zoo, Aquarium, Wall Street, Columbia University, Polo Grounds, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Coney Island and Automat. Tuurspay—Distinguished visitor makes first public appear- ance in United States at Carnegie Hall. Is hissed off stage. Money returned at ticket window. Fripay—Makes second and final public appearance in New York. Flooring and orchestra chairs of Carnegie Hall torn up by appreciative audience. Money returned at ticket window. Thirteen motion-picture companies break contract. Fourteenth prefers to sue. Saturpay—Five thousand six hundred and. seventy-eight autographs of distinguished visitor returned. Distinguished visitor signs up for attenuated lecture tour, remote Chautauqua circuit.. Eats ice-cream soda, chewing gum and frankfurter on roll. pAY—lIllustrated section newspapers contain photographs celebrity with dog, pipe, encyclopaedia, silk hat and bevy of bathing beauties. Bill for cut flowers of welcome arrives. Monpay—Encouraged by warm reception and_ successful début in America, distinguished visitor departs for the interior. He is never heard of again. H.W. H, TRANSFORMATION THE COST OF LIVING: 1910 AND 1920