Life, 1920-07-15 · page 16 of 40
Life — July 15, 1920 — page 16: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
The top cartoon depicts a woman in eyeglasses speaking to a man on a motorcycle. The woman says she's wearing eyeglasses and takes them off to sleep—otherwise she can't recognize people in her dreams. This is a gentle joke about the absurdity of needing corrective lenses even in dreams, mocking the woman's vanity or dependency on her glasses. Below is an article titled "Impertinence or Kindness?" where a writer laments receiving editorial rejection letters after three years pursuing literature. The tone shifts from discouragement to indignation when his manuscript was returned with a stranger's insulting comments visible on the envelope. He ends with dark humor: "JOIN THE NAVY—" implying escape from this humiliation. The accompanying illustration shows two men in a small boat, captioned "A Good Chance to Ask Him for the Hand of His Daughter," though its connection to the text is unclear.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
It Occurs to a Casual Observer: "paar if the United States will accept a -mandate for the Ar- menians at Adantic City and other American summer resorts, Iding to their they will have their hands full enough without number. at if the a of a plumbe he no more need for educ That one way to cure the acute shortage in print paper now pre- vailing throughout the world would he to get Lenine and Trotzky erage school-teacher of this country could be assured next six or seven years, there would 's wage for th tional pension funds, ting roubles for a period of ten days. induced to continue their courting at fter marriage, there would be a great to stop pr That if married folks could 1 home for a few years deal less divorce courting in Reno and other public matrimonial crossroads. That if labor would stop raising the deuce for a little while give us a little more produce, the sky-scraping cost of living would be broug nd nt down a peg or two. if, as the ope, Mr. Debs is elected President of the United States, we shall be compelled to put bars on the White | House windows, and instal a warden in place of the major-domo That Mr. Gompers’s Labor Congress, if elected, might be a good thing for us all, i counted upon to strike. and thus diminish the production of un- Socialists’! » following the usual custom, it could be necessary laws That we might profitably use some of the bars the Prohibitionists have put out of business to keep undesirable aliens out of the country, and at the same time find valuable use for the unem- ed bartenders of the hour. it be true, as Dr. Ayres says, that the American public- -two per cent. efficient, the probable “AML! WEARING EYEGLASSES, MR, BEANS reason is that the pay of the school-teachers is only forty-eight * ror ss OU SEE, I'M G G : d FORCIMLY, MISS TAKE. YOU SEE, I'M GETTING AWFULLY ber ‘cent adequate LEB. SHORTSIGHTED, AND HAVE TO WEAR THEM WHEN 1 GO TO SLEEP. OTHERWISE I CAN'T RECOGNIZE THE PEOPLE 1 DREAM ApouT.” school syste:n is only fif Impertinence or Kindness ? AM a writer of many rejections. For the last three years | ged in the pursuit of literature, and am T have been eng still running hard. Despite a multitude of editorial throw- downs, I have never complained of my lot. 1 have never spoken a harsh or profane word of a single editor. Always I have looked forward to the coming of the mail—hopefully, trust- ingly Until yesterday, Since yesterday, it must be admitted, T have undergone a change of heart. Hon- estly, Lam discouraged. Since the last visit but two of the postman, I can no longer thrill at the shrilling of his whistle; the mail, morning or evening, means nothing to me now. I am not only discouraged. IT am mad clean through. It was bad enough to re ve editorial regrets on what my friends assured me was my chef d'ocuvre; but to have my. st blazoned forth in public, so that all the ne world, his wife and his postman might see—to have my MS. returned in an en- velope stamped with the caustic advice: JOIN THE NAVY— A GOOD CHANCE TO ASK HIM FOR THE HAND OF HIS DAUGHTER comicbookSee a