Life — August 19, 1920 — page 7: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# "The Pharisee's Pet" and "Food Saving" **Top section**: A poem by J.E. Middleton satirizing self-righteous moralizing. The speaker criticizes those who judge others' pets and habits while ignoring their own moral failings—a reference to the biblical Pharisees (hypocrites). The poem's irony: the speaker praises their "High Moral Sense" while avoiding self-examination. **Bottom section ("Food Saving")**: A cartoon depicting wartime rationing. A boarding-house keeper ("Boarder Takin") discusses accommodating summer guests. The dialogue jokes bitterly about food shortages—claiming the "best season" had seven boarders, "three couples in love an' a dyspeptic," implying they consumed minimal food. This satirizes Depression-era or WWI-era economic hardship and the challenge of feeding boarders during food scarcity.