Life, 1921-05-19 · page 26 of 36
Life — May 19, 1921 — page 26: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a humor/joke compilation page featuring satirical observations on social behavior and gender roles, circa early 20th century. Key items include: **"More Man-Made Law"** cartoon depicts a husband complaining about his wife's skirt length—a commentary on evolving women's fashion and domestic power dynamics. **"The Old Comeback Comes Back"** presents Irish immigrant women (Mrs. O'Reilly and Mrs. O'Brien) discussing ancestry, satirizing class pretensions and immigrant social climbing. **"A Young Hopeful, Anyway"** jokes about women's new freedoms (voting, smoking, fewer restrictions) following suffrage, showing relief that a newborn daughter won't face traditional male constraints. **"Ceremony"** is a poem about insomnia and seeking solace in unread books—intellectual escapism. The page reflects post-WWI social upheaval: women's changing roles, immigrant integration, labor issues, and evolving class consciousness. The tone is lighthearted but revealing of contemporary anxieties about gender, modernization, and social mobility.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Abstract Youth and Age — “Ain't no old-folk in dis town,” remarked a colored laborer as he pitched a shovelful of dirt from one side of the road to the other and stopped to rest awhile. “No old-folkses ‘tall; ‘n no chilluns, neither. All the old folks rassel round like young uns and de chillun dun growed up ‘fore dey gits started!" After which soliloquy he re- sumed work, for a few minutes. —Florida Times-Union, A Trick Worth Knowing—* Your sits up and begs nicely. him well.” “Too well. Every time I try to teach him a new trick he starts to beg.” —Louisville Courier-Journal. A Stepping Stone—Lawyer (to des- perado he has been appointed to defend): You've done well, my friend, to assas- sinate six people, and I shall defend you «+ my pleading will be masterly. Of course you'll be condemned to death, but my reputation will be made. —Le Journal Amusant (Paris). Civic Pride—The old wheeze about a robber holding up a policeman has come true. It happened right here in Los An- geles. We lead the world! - —Los Angeles Times. Our Nursery Novelists —Child (dictating to his typist And with one latht long lingerin’ kith, they parted for ever— got that?—London Opinion. dog You have taught Author MORE MAN-MADE LAW “ou, MY creerixc ur! “WELL, you KNOW HOW IT I8S— MAN WANTS BUT LITTLE HERE BELOW, NOR WANTS THAT LITTLE LONG.” —Bulletin (Sydney). DEAR, YOUR SKIRTS are THE OLD COMEBACK COMES BACK First Lady: an’ wo were ANCESTORS, MRS. O'REILLY ? Second Lody: AN’ WUAT ARE AN- CESTORS, MRS. O'BRIEN ? First Lady: sure, THe Peorie VE SPRING FROM, MRS. O'REILLY, Second Lady: sPRinG FROM, IN- DADE. THE O'REILLYS SPRING FROM NOBODY, MRS. O'BRIEN; THEY SPRING at ’em.—Tatler (London). ver Skilled Labor —The modern artisan was teaching’ his son the trade. “Learn all the tricks in the trade, my son,” he said, “and by practice and care grow broad in your skill. But don’t make a habit of using too much skill, my lad, or you'll be kept so busy you'll never get a day off.” —Kansas City Star, Application Denied. answer to a housemaid’s advertisement re- ceived this missive: “ Madame :—You have a good name and address, but you write on a meesly half-sheet of paper which shows me you are no lady, and as such, and considering the paper you write on, the place wouldn’t suit me, being ac- customed to things being different.” —Bystander (London). lady writing in Potential Privation—Mother-in-Law: I wish I'd won a fortune in the lottery. Son-in-Law: What would you do with it? “Disinherit you!” —Karikaturen (Christiana). Romance in Us All—A man must be very far gone in prose who has quite abandoned the dream of the unexpected cheque that will drop through the letter- box.—New Statesman (London). Ceremony When I get to bed All the ghosts of all the books I haven't read Surround on either side. They reprimand me as they should, And then, O virgin pride! I light my lamp, Run to my shelves And with an armful creep Back to my couch, Where bride I am of books Instead of sleep. —C. B. S., in New York World. A Young Hopeful, Anyway—“I suppose you're disappointed it isn’t a boy?” “No siree! When I think’ that women now vote, smoke, go anywhere, wear what- ever clothes they like, if any, and tha men can’t even have a glass of bee: more, I'm satisfied."—Carolina Tar Baby. Naiveté—He (lovingly): What woold you do now if I should kiss you? She (timidly): 1—I don’t know, I have never had to answer such a question before! —L’Esquella de la Torratxa (Barcelona) The Trouble-Hunters— “Some o! days,” says a Georgia philosopher, “ youll see things so clearly that you'll wish you were back where you're located now, and you won't have a return ticket.” —Atlanta Constitution. OUR VILLAGE BAND Vicar: 1 pipx’t KNOW you WERE A DRUMMER, CLU Clutterbuck 1 KNOWS NowT ‘soUT DRUM MUSIC NEITHER; BUT 1 DEALS IT ONE WIIES 1 THINK IT WANTS 1T.—Reproducet from Punch (London) by arrange ment with the proprietors. comicbooks.com