Life — August 26, 1920 — page 13: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This cartoon presents two scenarios side-by-side with a humorous parallel. A well-dressed Summer Boarder (a wealthy visitor from the city staying in the countryside) praises a Rich Old Farmer's children as "the loveliest children," while the farmer dismissively compares them to a chicken-hawk stealing chicks—implying the boarder's children are predatory or unwanted. The satire mocks the class dynamics between rural farmers and urban summer tourists. The boarder's flattery appears disingenuous or condescending, while the farmer's crude response deflates any pretense of civility. The joke exposes the tension and mutual suspicion between rural and urban social classes in early 20th-century America, with each viewing the other with thinly-veiled contempt.