Life, 1921-02-17 · page 14 of 34
Life — February 17, 1921 — page 14: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This satirical piece mocks the Bald Eagle Casualty Company's new insurance product—coverage for social embarrassments. The article humorously describes policies protecting the socially awkward from "gloomy forebodings" at dinner parties and social events. The accompanying cartoon depicts a beach scene where a woman holds a parasol while another sits nearby. The caption reads: "Wouldn't daddy just love it down here; it's so nice and warm." / "Oh, yes! But he works so hard he keeps warm up there!" The joke plays on working-class struggle—the father works so hard (likely in a hot, labor-intensive job) that he remains perpetually "warm" from exertion, making leisure impossible. The satire critiques both class divisions and the absurdity of insurance policies for trivial social anxieties while real workers suffer.
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Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
The Latest in Insurance By Meredith Nicholson. A HANDSOME prospectus just issued by the Bald Eagle Casualty Company announces that it is now prepared to insure the unwary or helpless against the state or condition of being bored. While on the face of it this new feature is only designed to afford pecuniary relief to those who in social contacts find themselves in the company of dull and uninteresting persons, the higher aim is evidently to ele- vate American social standards. Those who, in the most hopeful spirit, dress for a dinner that proves to be a malevolently contrived combination of social non-conductors may, merely by filing the required affidavits, draw a neat sum from the company’s coffers. The benefits are calculated upon the degree of the policy-holder’s social value as appraised by the company’s experts. Or, if the food creates pangs of indigestion, this, too, entitles the policy- holder to relief on the same basis, with the addition of doctors’ bills and payment for loss of time. In the short space of a month the Bald Eagle has written many millions of insurance in this new department. The jaded victim of years of wearisome functions or the highly eligible house-party guest may console himself with the reflection that, no matter how great his sufferings and annoyances, his feelings will be soothed with cash. Protected by the Bald Eagle, one “WOULDN'T DADDY JUST LOVE IT DOWN HERE; IT’S SO NICE AND WARM, may even accept an invitation to meet a celebrity without the usual gloomy forebodings. Washington will be a likely field for the company’s agents when the dawn of a new administra- tion calls for a revision of social lists with the usual limitless possibilities of encountering the charmless great. Evidently with special thought for the needs of the national capital, the Bald Eagle has devised Form F, otherwise the hostess policy, by which a well-meaning woman, entertaining under the compulsion of her own or her husband's ambitions, may survey her table with every confidence that if a new Cabinet officer or an important senator offends some equally influential personage, the damage will be at least measurably covered by the Bald Eagle’s check. It is, however, to the great body of rebellious Americans who don a white tie with something akin to the merry anti of a murderer vesting for the lethal chair that these innova- ations tions in casualty insurance will most strongly appeal. With stout heart the captive husband may charge the buffet for the refreshments his wife is so much better off without. Here at last is a practical scheme for minimizing the terrors of the social adventure. Seeing Smith wink complacently at Brown at the most exalted moment of Mrs. Jones’ musicale, one will know instantly that both these specimens of the T. B. M.,, as they submit to the tortures of jazzless harm cheerfully speculating as to the time and place of their next poker game, for which the Bald Eagle will contribute the stakes. “OH, YES! BUT HE WORKS SO HARD HE KEEPS WARM UP THERE!” comicbooks.com