Life, 1920-11-11 · page 14 of 44
Life — November 11, 1920 — page 14: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains two distinct sections: **Upper section:** "Travel Information" offering practical tips for train travelers (kit bags, berth climbing, dining car costs, counting posts to estimate distance, reading signs from the opposite side). **Lower cartoon:** Titled "The Diplomat at the Breakfast Table," it depicts a well-dressed man with diplomatic bearing dining with a woman. The caption reads: "My darling, even Helmholtz, in all his glory, never made such rolls as these." The satire appears to mock diplomatic pretension—the man compares his wife's bread rolls to the achievements of a famous figure (likely physicist Hermann von Helmholtz), treating domestic accomplishments with exaggerated, grandiose language typical of diplomatic flattery. The joke satirizes overwrought compliments and the inflated rhetoric of diplomatic society applied to ordinary household matters.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
‘LIFE Travel Information Did You Know yet kit bags are so cailed because first carried by the pioneer Kit Carson on his trip west? That although it is harder to climb into an upper berth than into a lower one, it is easier to fall out of it? That a good way to avoid having cinders in your eye is to come in off the observation platform when the train goes through a tunnel? That if you have been used to spending thirty-five cents for dinner, you'd better not go into the dining-car? That no matter how charming a smile you give the conductor, he will nevertheless look at the date on the back of the ticket? That a good way to pass the time is to count the number of mile posts, multiply the result by three cents, then by twenty per cent. and finally by eight per cent.? The answer will tell you what kind of a hotel you are going to stop at That by sitting on the other side on the return trip, you can “ WHAT CAUSED Your DOWNF? read the same advertising signs on the opposite of the road? DRINK? That there’s no place like home? “NO, LADY ; CHEESE!” THE DIPLOMAT AT THE BREAKFAST TABLE “MY DARLING, EVEN DELMONICO, IN ALL HIS GLORY, NEVER MADE SUCH ROLLS AS THESE” comicbooks