Life, 1920-12-23 · page 42 of 44
Life — December 23, 1920 — page 42: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This single-panel cartoon depicts a hot air balloon descending toward ground level, satirizing post-World War I coal price inflation in America. The joke plays on the phrase "come down" — literally showing coal arriving via hot air balloon (an absurdly impractical method) as commentary on how **unrealistic it is to expect coal prices to decrease naturally**. The cartoon reflects genuine economic anxieties of the early 1920s, when coal shortages and rising prices were serious public concerns. By suggesting only a fantastical airship delivery could lower costs, the cartoonist implies that government intervention or other dramatic measures—not market forces—would be needed to address the crisis. The accompanying dialogue about a couple affording separate residences plays on similar post-war housing and cost-of-living concerns affecting ordinary Americans.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
~-LIFE. Guests have returned yeaf after year—not alone for ideal sport, but for the constant revival of happy memories, the renewal of old friendships. This season makes an even quarter-century for Pinehurst. CAROLINA HOTEL Now Open Special Rates up to February Holly Inn and Berkshire open early in January, Championship events in every field of sport the season thru. Golf (4-18 hole Donald Ross Courses), Tennis, Shooting. Horseback Riding, Racing, Driving, Motoring, Airplaning For information, address: General Office, Pinehurst, N. C. or LEONARD TUFTS 282 Congress Street, Boston Ingenious won't surprise you to learn that Bol and Mary have separated.” “But it does.” “Why, everybody expected it.” “T know, but who thought they would be able to find two places to live apart EA, son ee EX<x 9 Boss aia se THE ONLY WAY WE CAN EXPECT COAL TO COME DOWN IN THE FUTURE The Latest Books (Continued from page 1190) A Hippodrome production of the desert- West Wind Drift (Dodd Mead), by George Barr McCutcheon. Mr. McCutcheon shipwrecks a transatlantic linerful. Amusing dialogue and some good burlesque characterizations. By contrast, Pelham Grenville Wodehouse’s The Little Werrior (Doran) is a yarn written purely to amuse that manages something more island story There appear to he white shadowers in the South Seas. Jn the Tracks of the Trades (Dodd Mead), by Lewis R. Freeman, akes us to Hawaii, the Marquesas, Fiji, Samoa and the Society Islands. A hand- some book and an entertaining, by a skilled writer The brief diagnosis of the American mind, first of the papers collected in Henry Seidel Canby’s Everyday Americans (Century), is the best of rather a small book dealing in what you might call pure idea. For the in- telligentsia. The History of the A. E. F. (Doran), by Shipley Thomas, is “ official,” that is, car- ries the endorsement of our General Staff. Purely a military record, but, in the main, to be understanded of the people. A His- tory sea Power (Doran), by William tevens and Allan Westcott, begins with the Phoenicians and ends with No- vember 11, 1918; will be used as a text at Annapolis; can most of it be enjoyed by any reader interested in history or ships; and is especially enlightening on the sub- ject of the Battle of Jutland. The word “sleuth” in the title of Mel- ville Davisson Post's The Sleuth of St. James's Square (Appleton) constituted, for us, the only blemish on this new exhibition of Mr. Post's skill. er read the great mystery stories in his Uncle Abner (Apple- 6 BELLANS Hot, water. Di Sure Relief BELL-A FOR INDIGESTION Comfort Baby’s Skin With Cuticura Soap And Fragrant Tale eg teeny PETER J, CAREY @ SONS, IN! Deans Mentholated Cough Drops have just th necessary menthol to,make breathing easy ang| stop irritation. Nose and throat specialists op) menthol as a healing agent. Deans are as care! fully compounded as a prescription. Instan| relief. Keep a box in your pocket. Buy thes] today at your nearest dealer's. pEANS MENTHOLATED In Blind (Macmillan), Ernest Poole bas an epic motif such as made the success of his first novel, The Harbor (Macmillan), It is a picture, rather than a story, of typical people in the after-the-war seething-pot Despite flaws, very much worth while, Ida A. R. Wylie’s Children of Storm (Lane) is an after-the-war story of England showing class distinctions being obliterated in a way which is pleasing, but, we suspect, only trae in the rarest instances. Two first-rate new biographies: Gambetté (Dodd Mead), by Paul Deschanel, and The Reign of Patti (Century), by Herman Klein The Autobiography of Andrew Carnegie (Houghton Mifflin) is scrappy, but enables us to see Andy as he saw himself—and, after all, Andy got his own top price from the late J. P. Morgan for certain steel proper ties. Wives of great men all, or nearly all remind us only of reflected greatness; bat The Autobiography of Margot Asquith (Doran: two volumes) is a grand revenge. Since its success of scandal in England cap not be repeated here, Americans are priv leged to enjoy the book as a remarkable piece of self-portraiture by a vivacious al] fearless woman, who, furthermore, “ knew) everybody worth knowing" and forgets noat of them, no, not one. A Son of Courage, by Kishnie. (Reilly & Lee, Chicago.) north shore of Lake Erie in the early days of the development of Canadian oil fields The millions who enjoy Harold Bell Wrigtt would enjoy this quite as. unt servedly, The Ghost in the White House, by Geral Stanley Lee. (Dutton.) Not an attack Mr. Wilson, but more of the thought-welte that Mr. Lee put into Crowds. He says book is a series of suggestions as to how one hundred million people can make thee] selves felt with their President; it’s all ve] vague, though, and where it is lucid it generally platitude. story Grant M, Overton. comicbooks.com