Life, 1920-11-18 · page 7 of 44
Life — November 18, 1920 — page 7: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page features a satirical poem titled "Ballad of Unimportant Places" by E. O. James, accompanied by a sketch showing rural farmers discussing soil analysis. The cartoon illustrates the poem's opening line: "NOW, FATHER, THE FIRST THING TO DO, OF COURSE, IS TO HAVE A CHEMICAL ANALYSIS MADE OF THE SOIL." The humor mocks agricultural modernization—specifically, the growing trend of applying scientific methods and chemical analysis to farming. The joke appears to be that farmers are adopting overly technical, academic approaches to simple farming work, suggesting this is impractical or unnecessarily complicated for rural life. The poem itself satirizes various small, unremarkable American towns that "never amounted to much," treating their obscurity as a subject for mock-serious verse. The combined effect ridicules both rural pretension and the disconnect between urban scientific thinking and actual farm life.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
“ NOW, FATHER, THE FIRST THING TO DO, OF COURSE, IS TO HAVE A CHEMICAL ANALYSIS MADE . OF THE som.” Ballade of Unimportant Places ET other bardlings twiddle the lyre Of ultra-deadness in Oloce: To dear dead cities, in minor key— Towns that never amounted to much, Nineveh, Karnak, Sidon and Tyre; None of them, somehow, appeals to me. I sing of Sauk Center and Huckabee, Jacksnipe, Pedec, Scuffetown, Dutch, Bughall, Quidnunc and Bermidji: Towns that never amounted to much. Gabbetsville, Suncook—some of the choir Were cursed by fate from their infancy. How could Adobe or Weed aspire To the civic grandeur of Alamuchee? But Energy, Aimwell and Sesame Should have escaped Time's seeling clutch And thriven like Hyssop, Yell and McGee, If deadness be to the poet's desire, Whereas they never amounted to much. Think on Yamhill and Chicopee; Pizmo pleads for the funeral pyre; Brakeman, proclaim them right lustily: Consider the canning factor-ee Whatcom, Coyote and Clutterbutch, That never came, or the library Tanner’s Bottom and Whiffletree : Of Shagticoke, or the euphonic touch Towns that never amounted to much E. O. James, comicbooks.com