Life, 1921-02-17 · page 9 of 34
Life — February 17, 1921 — page 9: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This humorous article satirizes wealthy Northern tourists wintering in the South, particularly Florida. The cartoons mock the pretense and exaggeration surrounding Southern resort destinations. The jokes target: - **Climate boasting**: Northerners arriving expecting perfect weather but encountering cold snaps (the article mentions Cedar Springs residents keeping thermometers below sixty degrees to shame visitors) - **Social posturing**: References to specific resorts like Coconut Beach and the Royal Palmetto, where guests compete to display their wealth - **Character types**: Miss Phoebe Armstrong and Miss Alicia Byrd appear to represent the stereotypical wealthy winter visitor concerned with status and climate statistics The bottom cartoon depicts what appears to be resort guests in wicker chairs, suggesting the idle leisure lifestyle. The satire emphasizes how Southerners gleefully embarrass wealthy Northerners when promised warm weather fails to materialize.
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Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
February 17 Southern Climates By GLUYAS WILLIAMS If you are wintering in the South you should constantly bear in mind that no matter at what resort you are stay- ing, you are in the only perfect climate in the world. Even though the old- timers will remind you of the fact every ten minutes or so, you need to keep the matter on your mind, for one litle slip is fatal. Bertie Wilberforce. for example, is practically a social out cast at Cocoanut Beach, Florida; yet his only offense was to remark on his second day there that he had never been in a place where there was so beastly much climate, Miss Phoebe Armstrong is among those who regard the climate from the medical point of view. The climate of Zephyr- hurst, S. C., has cured her of so many ailments, any one of which would have proved fatal, that it has taken her the better part of two hours to enumerate them to Mr. Tuttle, who wonders why unkind fate did not lead her to some less healthful resort. Miss Alicia Byrd has such a great heart that she sits all day by the thermometer on the balmy porch of the Royal Pal- metto, in order to know exactly how much to pity the unfor- tunate people who are freezing and shivering up north. She is the unofficial statistician of the climate and can tell you on how many days of February of any year the thermometer stood at over seventy degrees, Revenge is sweet, but that does not excuse the oafish conduct of Mr. B. Dillingham Minn which is pictured at the left. His stay at Cedar Springs has been made completely miserable by the other guests, who would not let him forget that the sun shines every day of the winter at Cedar Springs, and that the thermometer never goes below six- ty degrees. But now that the phenom- enal has happened and a cold rain has sent the temperature down to thirty-six degrees, it's really too bad of him to keep stamping into the lobby, chuckling clownishly, and thus reminding the Cedar Springers of the:r shame. wclins comicbooks.com