Life — May 12, 1921 — page 7: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# "Deacon Smithers Takes a Short Cut Across the Hardguy Golf Links" This six-panel comic strip, drawn by A.B. Frost, depicts a humorous narrative about a character named Deacon Smithers who attempts to cross a golf course illegally. The sequence shows: 1. Smithers running across the links while golfers play 2. Him evading approaching golfers 3. Confrontations with course workers or golfers 4. Escalating complications from his trespassing The satire mocks both Smithers' audacious rule-breaking and the stuffy formality of golf culture. His "short cut" violation of golf course etiquette—a serious breach in this era when golf represented upper-class respectability—provides the comedy. The strip satirizes class tensions and the rigid social hierarchies surrounding the sport in early 20th-century America.