Life, 1920-09-23 · page 25 of 40
Life — September 23, 1920 — page 25: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains three satirical pieces mocking early 20th-century American politics and social pretension: **Top left cartoon**: Gossip about a couple's marriage validity being questioned because their minister hadn't paid union dues—satirizing bureaucratic absurdity overriding actual legitimacy. **Center section**: A mock "Kickers' Party" platform letter. The satire targets radical reformers who demand sweeping change (abolishing Congress, exiling reformers to Yap island, censoring literature) while their leadership equivocates on actual policy (Mexico). The joke: revolutionary parties full of grand rhetoric but no concrete answers. **Right cartoon**: A man struggling to carry a trunk downstairs, with caption suggesting he's improbably strong—likely satirizing either marital dynamics or working-class aspiration. **Bottom section**: A brief joke about a finished schoolgirl's only distinguishing trait being that she kisses men and borrows money—mocking vapid upper-class daughters. Overall, the page ridicules political radicalism, bourgeois pretension, and social hypocrisy through humor.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
“MY DEAK, DID YOU HEAR THAT JACK AND MABEL ARE I TROUBLE IN REGARD TO THE VALIDITY OF THEIR MARRIAGE? “on! now TerRieie!” “YES, IT APPEARS THAT THE MINISTER HADN'T PAID HIS DUES TO THE UNI “We reaffirm those great principles which—” are hereby abolished. Open cellars, openly arrived at. It should be thoroughly understood that although the Kickers’ Party is one of reconstruction, and therefore intensely radical; we propose to move slowly. If we are in too much of a hurry, we may defeat our own object. Here is a letter, just received, bearing on this problem: Manager Kickers’ Party. Dear Sik: Put me down at once as an ardent member of your party. I am with you heart and soul. The thing for us to do is to get rid of Congress, make the income reports so simple that even a_ political economist will un- derstand them, segregate our reformers and fanatics on the Island of Yap and intern all the profiteers. This would make a fair heginning, and you can't begin any too soon to suit me And, by the way, who is this man Sumner, in New York, who is trying to rule out some of our best literature? I'd begin on him. How long is it going to take for us middle-class people to pay for all the extravagance and incompetence with which things are being run? I'm for a real turnover! Yours for action, TAXPAYER. Slowly, friend, slowly! Let us get our party formed first, and our platform outlined Beverly Binks, greatest orator of the age, has just wired us: “What shall I tell "em about Mexico?” And we have wired back: “Don't commit yourself about Mexico just now. Will let ye: know later, when we have consulted Japan and a few others. Next week we shall have an important announcement to make. “Ol, MOTHER! YOU THOUGHT FATHER COULDN'T BKING YOUR TRUNK DOWNSTAIRS ON HIS BACK, BUT YOU OUGHTA SEE HIM!” Identified “LIAVE you met our daughter since she got back from finish- ing school?” “A young woman in the hall kissed me lightly on the fore head, murmured rch, and asked me to lend her a couple of thousand, That must have been she.” few words in broken I comicbooks.com