Life, 1921-03-03 · page 24 of 38
Life — March 3, 1921 — page 24: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page from *Life* satirizes post-WWI American culture through multiple cartoons and literary commentary. The main cartoon "After You My Dear" depicts competing figures (likely politicians or bureaucrats) bowing excessively at a "Disarmament Committee" meeting—mocking the era's peace negotiations and disarmament talks following World War I, suggesting hollow political courtesy masking self-interest. The smaller cartoons at top mock contemporary figures: one shows someone labeled with references to "ignorance" and "education," criticizing public figures' pretensions. "The Whirl of Letters" section satirizes famous writers' productivity. It jokes that poet Robert Bridges isn't prolific enough, mocks H.G. Wells versus Robert W. Chambers in a writing "match," and quips that Sinclair Lewis's *Main Street* should be called "Pain Street"—critiquing the novel's dark portrait of small-town American life. The page reflects 1920s intellectual culture's obsession with literary output, wartime recovery, and modernist skepticism about earnest political gestures and contemporary literature's social commentary.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
March MaAkc# comes—in a sudden, wind- less dusk There is an end of snowing. And winter breaks like an outworn husk, With pale grass showing; The stars fade whitely into dawn; The pale gold sunlight gleaming Across a myriad-jewelled lawn Sets hearts to dreaming; Then wistful, strange, wild ecstasies, And agony of spring returning, Stretching the naked soul of trees With poignant yearning— Swift moods of sunshine and gray mist, And a hitter, keen wind blowing; In a ragged veil of amethyst March comes—no knowing! Ethel M. Pomeroy. LIFE’S Bi-weekascope ANT Ww Te LEADING is | = “AFTER YOU MY DEAR The Whirl of Letters "ANNUNZIO will get to work on an epic of the war as soon as he can get the Fiumes out of his brain E. Phillips Oppenheim has just com- pleted another one of his former novels. Amy Lowell has discovered so many infant pocts recently that she contem- plates confining herself hereafter to prose. Can H. G, Wells write more words a day than Robert W. Chambers? Perhaps Tex Rickard could arrange a match be- tween them. Complaint is made in England that Rob- ert Bridges, Poet Laureate, is not suffi- ciently prolific. Evidently the kickers have never read his verse. “Main Street.” by Sinclair Lewis, should have becn called “ Pain Street.” A reward is offered for any membe of the outgoing Administration who does ut contemplate writing a book. A Browning craze is broken out in Oklahoma. Miss Anne Morgan's pugilis iasm has led her to take up Spargo ser iously. said tc The March of Time OWARD: T used to leave modern novels around for our young folks and lock up the Decameron. Jay: Yes, and now? ww I leave out the Decameren and lock up the modern novels.” OSS: What would you do if we wert to exchange places? Orrice Boy: Fire the office boy, * comicbooks.com