Life, 1921-01-27 · page 5 of 36
Life — January 27, 1921 — page 5: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
**Top Section ("Periods of High Barometric Pressure"):** This column humorously catalogs domestic domestic crises that cause family anxiety—broken windows, engagements, cut glass bowls, phonograph malfunctions, and missing thimbles. The satire targets the overwrought emotional responses of bourgeois households to minor inconveniences, suggesting Victorian/early-20th-century middle-class families treated trivial incidents as major dramas. **Bottom Cartoon:** Two men in hats lean on a fence watching a pig. One says "Why, howdy, Ed? I was jest thinkin' about ye." The humor relies on rural vernacular and the implication that the pig—not the human—prompted the speaker's thoughts, suggesting the pig resembles or reminds him of his acquaintance. This is mild, rustic humor about appearance-based insults. **Right Column ("Of the Making of Books"):** Book advertisements for spring publications, noting upcoming autobiographies and confessional works gaining market appeal.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Periods of High Barometric Pressure WHEN Willie is waiting for Mother to tell Father about that broken window. When Gladys breaks the news of her engagement. When Honoria breaks the cut glass bowl. When Father is tinkering with a delicate adjustment on the phonograph, and five children are crowding close and asking questions, When Cousin John drops in, with a big candy box under his arm, and the children don’t know whether to grab it, or whether he is on his way to call on his best girl. When Mother is waiting to see whether Betty’s symptoms mean scarlet fever or just hives. When the unexpected guest makes seven at table, and the pie is being cut. When Grandma's thimble is missing, and the baby sud- denly coughs. Of the Making of Books UTOBIOGRAPHIES will be open-faced this season, cut low in the front and elaborately trimmed. Home- made material will be almost exclusively used. Heart-to- heart talks with young people by life prisoners will be in great demand, bound in red calf. The frank story of the wickedest woman in Chicago is a prospective best seller. “Startling Revelations by a Husband Who Meant Well” is to come out anonymously. “The Confessions of a Janitor,” announced for early publication, is among the latest disclosures by garrulous autocrats. “Hit 'Em Again—and Win,” by General von Gruffundfreitful, is being translated from the German into English, “The Autobi- ography of a Wall Street Lamb” will reach the public on April First. tr TAKES all kinds of people to unmake a world. “WHY, HOWDY, ED? I WAS JEST THINKIN’ ABOUT YE.” comicbooks.com