Life, 1921-02-24 · page 22 of 32
Life — February 24, 1921 — page 22: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains three satirical pieces typical of Life magazine's humor: 1. **"Janitors, Old and New"**: A mock-serious article "reporting" the discovery of a 45-story prehistoric New Mexico building with a petrified janitor skeleton. The joke satirizes evolutionary progress: the ancient janitor possessed every organ except a heart and wielded absolute authority, while the modern janitor is "all heart and wholly dominated by loving kindness." This inverts typical superiority claims about progress—suggesting modern workers are actually softer and more exploited than ancient ones. 2. **"Business Maxims"**: Cynical aphorisms about workplace conduct, including "even crooks must keep up [honesty's] appearance" and "Nobody can raise your salary but yourself"—satirizing capitalist self-reliance and hypocrisy. 3. **Right panels**: A domestic cartoon mocking a newlywed couple's inconsiderate neighbors and family, and a dinner-table cartoon about indecisive meal planning, typical period humor about modern marriage and household tensions.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
“SHAME ON you!” Janitors, Old and New A apartment building, forty-five stories high and contain- ing one thousand rooms, the home of an extinct Indian tribe, has been unearthed in New Mexico by the School of American Research. It is reported that the petrified remains of a janitor were discovered at the main entrance to this pre- historic skyscraper. well preserved; his gold crown still rested upon his domi- neering brow, and his patrician hand clasped a sceptre and a bunch of keys. As if this were not sufficiently interesting, the remains of this ancient autocrat revealed at an autopsy the fact that he pos- sessed every vital organ except a heart. What a contrast he presents to the typical janitor of to-day, who is all heart and wholly dominated by that loving kindness his New Mexican Prototype so tragically lacked! derful? His haughty lineaments were marvellously Isn't evolution simply won- LIFE When they came back from their honeymoon and started in to keep house, these wer some of the “nice” things said abo them, HE Woman Next Doow: Anyone could walk. right in and take every. thing they have. They never think of locking up a thing. Tue Bripe’s Sister: Well, she can't de. pend on me any longer. Tue Brive’s Brotuer: I could have told him—the poor boob. But any mag who's fool enough to get married—! Tue Brive’s Motuer: She won't take a thing from me. Tue Brwe’s Fatuer: Let 'em alone! fy AN ee | Business Maxims N business, honesty is so necessary that even crooks must keep up its appear- ance. To obey orders in the beginning is tobe able to give them in the end. To squander the future in advance, ways be ten minutes late. The head of the firm is known by th company he keeps. To look at a thing properly from your standpoint requires that you also look at it from the other fellow’s. Nobody can raise your salary but your self. That Paper Shortage 'HE scarcity of paper has not always been a modern problem. Smart wrote a “Song to David” on the walls of 2 madhouse; Coleridge wrote a sonnet o2 a scrap of seaweed; Tennyson wrote “Is Memoriam” in a butcher's ledger, and Keats wrote an “Ode on a Grecian Um” “PAPA AND I ARE HUNGRY, MOTHER. 1 WISH YOU'D MAKE UP YOUR MIND WHAT WE WANT FOR DINNER.” comicbooks.com