Life, 1920-10-28 · page 29 of 46
Life — October 28, 1920 — page 29: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
The top cartoon satirizes women's newly won voting rights (likely referencing the 19th Amendment, 1920). An elderly woman declares she's waited forty years to vote and "show them politicians what I thought o' them." When asked her election day plans, she announces she'll stay home to demonstrate her contempt for all politicians. The joke's bitter irony: after decades fighting for suffrage, she expresses her freedom by refusing to vote—suggesting voter disillusionment or cynicism about whether politicians deserved the responsibility women fought to gain. It critiques both the limitations of voting as meaningful political change and possibly women's frustration that gaining the vote didn't translate to actual political power or representation. The lower cartoon, "A Gotham Conversation," defines hypocrisy through domestic economics: a father describes seeing their landlord wear shabby clothes while complaining about his wife's dressmaker bills—exposing class hypocrisy and financial pretense among landlords.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
i 2 G “FORTY YEARS I'VE BEEN WAITIN’ FER TH’ VOTE, SO'S I COULD SHOW THEM POLITICIANS WHAT 1 THOUGHT O° THEM, JEST YOU WAIT TILL ELECTION bay!” “WHAT ARE YE GOIN’ T’ DO ON ELECTION DAY, MIS’ FIGGLN “STAY RIGHT TER HOME "ERE AN’ SHOW MY CONTEMP’ PER THE WHOLE BILIN’ O° THLEM.” Unknown Heroes of Literature ECENTLY a very remarkable thing happened. A novelist— Mrs. Kathleen Norris, to be precise—dedicated her new book, and in terms of genuine affection, to the head salesman of her publishing house. Now there may be some who will scoff at this, and say that too sharp an eye upon the selling phase of the business has been the inward reason for the pro- gressive deterioration of the work of a very talented writer. But we, who look with so temperate and lenient an eye upon all sublunary affairs, see in this incident a cheerful and encour- aging context. Too little honor has been paid to that most influential pinion in the literary machine, the publisher's sales- man, Day and night, in the rumbling discomfort of a Pullman berth or in suasive and checkered argument with the jaundiced and skeptic buyer, this genial paladin goes forth to wage war on lehalf of the helpless and aspiring author. Mrs. Norris, tented over hy the blue sky of her California prune ranch, has been the first to pay tribute to the genius of the man who, more than any others, keeps writers warmed and fed. Cc. MM. A Gotham Conversation “WY/HAT'S hypocrisy, dad?” “When you see our landlord wearing his old clothes, THE HOT-AIR PUMP TO INFLATE TIRE, ATTACH INTAKE RECEIVER NEAR YOUR WIFE AND KICK ABOUT AMOUNT OF DRESSMAKER OR MILLINER BILL, THE RESULT 1S WONDERFUL comicbooks.com