Life, 1920-10-28 · page 31 of 46
Life — October 28, 1920 — page 31: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
**Top Cartoon**: This depicts female suffrage frustration. A woman, having waited forty years for voting rights, plans to express her contempt for politicians by staying home on election day rather than voting. The satire mocks both the absurdity of this protest strategy and, implicitly, the delay in granting women's suffrage—she's waited four decades only to abstain. The dialect suggests working-class commentary on political disillusionment. **"Unknown Heroes of Literature"**: A brief essay praising novelist Kathleen Norris for dedicating her book to her publisher's head salesman. It celebrates the often-overlooked role of salesmen in supporting writers' careers and livelihoods, treating commercial success as worthy of literary recognition rather than beneath serious artistic consideration. **"A Gotham Conversation"**: A humorous domestic sketch defining hypocrisy: a father explains it by pointing to their landlord wearing shabby clothes (implying the landlord is actually wealthy but pretends poverty to avoid appearing ostentatious). **"The Hot-Air Pump"**: A joke about using marital complaints about spending as "hot air" to inflate car tires.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
“FORTY YEARS I'VE BEEN WAITIN’ FER TH’ VOTE, SO’S IT COULD SHOW THEM POLITICIANS WHAT 1 THOUGHT O' THEM, JEST YOU WAIT TILL ELECTION vay!” “ WHAT ARE YE GOIN’ T’ DO ON ELECTION DAY, MIS’ FICGINS?” “STAY RIGHT TER HOME "ERE AN’ SHOW MY CONTEMP’ FER THE WHOLE BILIN’ O° THEA.” 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 behalf of the helpless and aspiring author. Mrs. Norris, tented over by 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. M. A Gotham Conversation “\Y/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