Life, 1921-01-20 · page 25 of 36
Life — January 20, 1921 — page 25: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains three separate satirical pieces mocking religious and civic overreach: **"A Page from a Blue Diary"** parodies Puritan excess through a fictional 1675 diary entry. The author depicts an absurdly austere Christian who shoots a singing bird as "sinful," whips a whistling boy for indecorum, and refuses to enjoy sunsets or shade trees—all while poisoning rivers. The satire targets rigid, joyless moralism that harms both nature and people in the name of piety. **"Killing with Kindness"** critiques the Lord's Day Alliance, which successfully closed post offices on Sundays. While framed as religious charity, the piece ironically notes it actually deprives postal workers of leisure time rather than granting it. **The Mayor Duffy piece** mocks a Kansas mayor's car-parking ban at a high school, which ironically creates congestion rather than solving it—another example of well-intentioned rules producing absurd results. The cartoon (depicting figures with a donkey) appears to illustrate one of these pieces, though the specific reference is unclear from the visible caption.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
-LIFE- A Page from a Blue Diary UNDAY, June, 1675—Up with the sun, though I deigned not to look upon its blatant and. sinful coloring, and yet I could not lie abed longer in evil laziness. I journeyed into the countryside after a meagre and holy breakfast, but closed my nostrils against the insidious and beguiling freshness of the early morn. How flagrant are the wiles of the Devil! \ thrush, heathen foul, burst into a madrigal as I passed, aud L shot him with my blunderbuss, burying his carcass lest the gluttonous cat make Sunday feast upon him, With his riotous song stilled, the penitential pipings of the frogs could) more clearly reach the ears of wrong-doers and yarn them to repent. Passing down the road I met Brother liopkins’ lad, Sam, barefoot, and whistling as he capered ost disgustingly through the path. I whipped him into a more decorous countenance, and yet the young fiend re- oached me bitterly, even though I saved his soul. It is alw thus with the sinful. Reaching the meeting-house 1 found thany seemly and godly persons like myself gath- wed together for Divine worship, seriously intent upon ering prayers to their Creator. Until noon-time we were re, and listened for three hours to a masterful sermon ly Mr. Smires on the Evils of Health. Nothing short of inspired! The journey home accomplished in the burning sun, the true Christian disdaining the soft and langorous hadows flung out by the trees to trap the unwary. A ugal meal at midday. Coarse bread, stale and without hutter, is an excellent vehicle for true repentance. Our fer- vent Christians returned to the church, and there sought each other’s counsel, and besought Divine Guidance in sup- pressing the Flower and Fish Evil. To eradicate the latter it was decided to poison all rivers and streams. This de- cision made, we prayed again that our way be lightened, and so dispersed to our several homes, content in a Chris- tian day. Again a ribald and obscene sunset greeted our eyes and sought to stimulate our senses, but we steadfastly refused, turning our backs upon it for the journey. John H. Anderson. Killing with Kindness T appears from an interview given to the New York Even- ing Post by the Rev. Harry L. Bowlby of the Lord's Day Alliance, that post-office employees “have the Lord's Da Alliance to thank for the fact that they have a free Sunda to-day.” The Alliance, says Bro. Bowlby, largely brought about the closed post-office on Sunday. If the Lord’s Day Alliance really did that, it is entitled to full credit. But isn’t it rather tough on the post-office men, after taking the work out of their Sunday, to turn around and take the play out, too? AYOR DUFFY, of Olate, Kansas, has issued an order forbidding students to park their cars ‘n front of the local high school of a morning. All the sons and daughters of wealthy farmers in that region drive their own roadsters and sedans, with the result that there has been great con- gestion in Main Street during school hours. Evidently Will Shakespeare, who described the school- boy “creeping like snail unwillingly to school,” did not re- side in Olate, Kansas. HARDLY SET ON \ OSS YET, comicbooks.com