Life, 1920-11-25 · page 18 of 45
Life — November 25, 1920 — page 18: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains several satirical pieces typical of early 20th-century Life magazine: **"Local Gossip"**: A rural tall tale about Cal Sampson using his fiddle to imitate quail calls while hunting, only to be shot at by Bill Smalley, who mistakes him for game. The humor relies on dialect humor and slapstick consequences (Cal's ruined pants). **"Irish Bulls"**: A humor section exploiting Irish-American stereotypes through malapropisms—Houlihan's definition of a pessimist ("burns his bridges...then crosses them") and the "Prominent Old Party" who's working his son through college rather than attending himself. **"The Presence"**: An allegorical short story where an unnamed specter follows a man through life—revealed at the end to be Loneliness, which only leaves those in loving relationships. **Bottom cartoon**: Satirizes aldermen passing ordinances limiting women's skirt length—a recurring moral-panic topic of the era, depicted through absurdist visual humor. The page reflects early-1900s American preoccupations: rural/immigrant stereotypes, gender anxieties, and social morality debates.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
-LIFE.: LOCAL GossIP Cal Sampson is a natcherel fiddler. He's a dabster at playin’ “Listen to the Mockin’ Bird,” and he figgered he might decoy some quail with his fiddle. So he went 1p inter that piece by the wood lot an’ set down and imitated—" Bob White.” Wall, Bill Smalley wuz doin’ a little gunnin’, and he heard a funny soundin’ quail and snuk up on him, and when he see Cal wuz a-trickin’ him he took his gun an’, jest fer a joke, let ‘er go. Cal jumped ‘most ten foot and started runnin’, scart to death, He must ‘uv gut the notion he a quail; anyhow, he dum near flew, fiddle and all. Bill waited till he wuz fur enough away, so'st wouldn't hurt much, and let him hey the other barrel, His pants wuz a total loss, onless Miss Samp kin use 'em fer lace curtains. Bill sez ef Cal wants to imitate quail, he’s willin’ to do his part Here’s Another of those Insh Bulls 'HOULIHAN: MvLpoon : Pwhut's a pessimist, Mike? He's a feller pwhat burns his bridges behind him an’ thin crosses thim before he comes to thim, [NTERVIEWER: And did you work your way through col- lege? Prominent Oto Party: son's way through. No, I didn't; but I'm working my Maybe the Lord will forgive me. THE BOARD OF ALDERMEN HAVE PASSED AN ORDINANCE LIMITING THE LENGTH OF A SKIRT The Presence i stole into the little room at the hour a tender, loving y mother had usually come with good-night kisses and caresses for the sturdy little Boy. But she would never come again. \ dry sob choked the little Boy's throat when this other un- known Presence settled down in the room Tt followed the Bo; room of the Dormitory where he studied alone. with him to the Great City. For awhile Love and Dreams se¢med to banish It, but the Roy was ambitious and thrust Love from him. Then Success and Fame came to him, and for brief periods now grown larger, into the barn-like It travelled he did not see the Thing which ever followed, and then he would find it on the arm of the overstuffed chair at his club, and always in the crowd of the street, and ever by his lonely hed Old Age arrived, and now It was at his side for almost all of his waking moments. And when the old man was about to die, he cried out Who are you, that have followed me, and cursed me, and made the sweets of life bitter, nearly all the days of my life?” And the Presence answered: “I am Lonesomeness, and I follow all men save those who abide in the Love of a Woman.” AUD: Why does everyone hate Carol? Beatrix: She's able to keep a secret, all her umbrellas and out of debt. . AND MRS, AUSTEN TASHUS HAVE THEIR TIRES MADE TO ORDER comicbooks.connal