Life, 1920-11-11 · page 19 of 44
Life — November 11, 1920 — page 19: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains three separate satirical pieces: 1. **Top cartoon**: A formal adult asks a boy about kissing a girl at a party. The boy's practical response—that young girls "squirm too much"—humorously subverts the adult's implied romantic expectations, mocking sentimental assumptions about childhood innocence. 2. **"Remember?" editorial**: Satirizes wartime newspaper editorials that promoted idealistic visions of soldiers' post-war lives—respect for authority, strong character, outdoor work. The author mocks these as hollow propaganda, noting they were recycled filler content when real editorial topics seemed dull. 3. **"Enforced Thrift" dialogue**: A humorous exchange where one character claims to save his entire $15 weekly wage, while another protests that $15 won't buy anything anyway. The joke critiques both wartime financial restrictions and the absurdity of saving money with such limited purchasing power—likely referencing post-WWI economic conditions or inflation concerns. All three pieces employ irony to deflate contemporary social pretensions and wartime rhetoric.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
LIFE my) ea mM WK iH | W | | - Nye X 5| ai) ‘ih pe ) | - \ | “EH, BOBBIE, HOW ABOUT THE LITTLE GIRL IN THE CORNER? DID YOU KISS HER?” “OH, NO, SIR! AT THAT AGE THEY SQUIRM TOO MUCH, Remember? Enforced Thrift HO remembers those prophetic space-filling editorials that UB: My new job pays me fifteen dollars a week, and I'm appeared in the newspapers during the war when the saving it all. y expert was taking a day off and safe domestic topics Dur: How on earth can you do that? were dull? There was the one about how the army was “Why, fifteen dollars won't buy anything! straightening America’s shoulders and how wonderful it would be to have a generation of erect, deep-chested men. Remember that one? Then there was the one about the respect for authority, which would be second nature to all the men when they came lack, to be passed along to the next generation. That was a good one, and very popular, because it could be hooked up with an attack on anarchy or any other form of contempt for law. Ani other fami vorite was the love the men would have <pected contempt for desserts bali hinted at as a good thing, a journalistic slant appropriate to the sugar shortage. But the greatest favorite, the one most used for" those essays that pass for editorials in some of the Sunday newspapers, was that one about outdoor life. Every veteran would want a job in “the great outdoors.” He would never be “chained to an office stool” again. INKS has married a “T knew he didn’t deserve that divorce!” THE OLDEST INHABITANT CONVINCES A FEW OF THE SKEPTICS comicbooks.com