Life, 1921-02-10 · page 17 of 42
Life — February 10, 1921 — page 17: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This Life magazine page contains three distinct satirical pieces: **"Diplomatic"** (top): A dialogue between a wealthy white woman and an African American servant using period racial dialect ("darkies," "yo' all"). The joke hinges on the servant's shrewd negotiation—when asked to name his own price, he asks less than what the employer might have offered, reversing expected power dynamics while still stereotyping Black workers as deferential. **"Guaranteed Restaurant Patron"** (middle): A brief joke about a restaurant patron demanding a drink "with a kick," with the waiter's punchline being that the bill itself will provide the shock. **"The Poor Little Rich Boy Goes in for Winter Sports"** (bottom): A four-panel comic strip showing a wealthy boy in formal attire attempting winter activities (sledding, skating) while maintaining his top hat and dignity—satirizing upper-class pretension and the absurdity of the wealthy trying leisure activities while remaining artificially formal. All pieces mock class distinctions and social pretension typical of early 20th-century Life satire.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
trie with the visor of his cap pulled low over that mantles ; but you,are not in their class. As to his sunken wher you are not prepared to treat uffeur as a self-starting device pos- nor or shame f you take a no morc rting device. m the higher walks of heart all to your level; you would his by cutting out one of your Nowing’a couple of ‘o lapse, selling the old bus and new one with a custom-built body nd a silver-plated radiator fron It J look so imported that it would fool Collector of the Port of New York himself; and with the very first garage bill that you received, you would give up the plan your eld- est girl to Vassar. you had for sen Now I ask you, are you going to sa rifice your daughter’s chances and yor own happiness in order to hire a chauf- feur so that you shall not run over pedes- trians? When a pedestrian reads about an automobile owner overturning his car in trying to avoid running over a pedes- trian, does the pedestrian attribute it to his pedestrianism and determine there- after to ride in a street car? He does not. He keeps right on being a pedestrian, so don’t you be weak and hire a chauffeur, Steel yourself against pedestrians and drive your own car. Diplomatic E was one of the few remaining old- time darkics. He had finished the odd jobs for which.he had been employed, and, hat in hand, appeared at the back door. “How much is it, Uncle?” he was asked. “Yo! say how much? yo’ all say, missis.” Jest whateber “T HEAR THAT YOUR WIFE IS GOING TO DELIVER AN ADDRESS HERE TO-NIGHT, MR. SOPHLEY.” “ MY DEAR LADY, IT’S NO USE TO APPEAL TO ME 1 CAN'T STOP HER.” Guaranteed TAURANT PATRON ( ing): Waiter, can you serve us something with a kick in it? Warten (whispering) : get the bill. “Oh, but I'd rather you would say how much,” the lady of the house replied. But, m’am, Ah'd rather hab de seventy-five cents yo’ all would gimme dan de fifty cents Ah’d charge yo" all.” isper- R' “Yas, m'am! Wait until you THE POOR LITTLE RICH BOY GOES IN POR WINTER SPORTS comicbooks.com