Life, 1921-06-23 · page 31 of 36
Life — June 23, 1921 — page 31: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is primarily a satirical commentary column with advertisements, not political cartoons. The main content critiques American magazines: **The satire:** The author mocks comic periodicals for failing to be funny, suggesting editors rename publications with deliberately dull titles (citing real intellectuals like Frank Crane and Orison Swett Marden) so readers would be *shocked* into laughter at the rare actual jokes. The underlying point: comic magazines have become predictable and unfunny. **Other items:** A brief jab at socialist publisher Alfred Knopf, whose author Floyd Dell's novel made enough money that Dell bought formal wear—mocking socialist pretensions about rejecting materialism. A dialect joke about a mule and a parrot adds period-typical racial humor. **Advertisements** dominate the page: Waterman fountain pens (emphasizing quality and innovation) and The Biltmore hotel in New York. The page reflects 1910s-era magazine humor conventions and consumer culture.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
jend me ZW Unpopular Memoranda (Continued from page 917.) obediently waded throught tons of sex, love and business stories that have bam- boozled its eager nose for novelty by all ending in much the same way. Therefore the public has in its impatience and dis- gust turned to the long-neglected detective and mystery stories which will keep it g for a like space of time until it catches on to the fact that. they also all end in much the same way. IV. The Comic Papers—The fault of the m: y of comic periodicals is that they of their comicality, and thus chal- lenge their readers not to laugh. If I were the editor of a comic periodical, the first thing I'd do would be to change its name from something like “ Puck” or “Pr to something like “The Elec- trolytic Nitridation and Achylia Gastrica Review,” fill nine-tenths of it with the dullest articles Dr, Frank Crane, Orison Swett Marden, Gerald Stanley Lee, Dr. Parkhurst, Maurice Maeterlinck, Prof. t Pratt and Roger Babson could , and then add two—and only two— es. These two good jokes would thus be sure-fire; they would surprise my reader into a hearty response; he would remember them; and I should make a great fortune, Vv; The End of a Socialist—Alfred A. Knopf, publisher of the Socialist Floyd Dell's novel, “ Moon-Calf,” recently sent out a press notice that the book has made so much money for Dell that the latter has bought himself a dinner jacket. Applied Efficiency “QAY, Sam, why do you-all carry that arrot around with you on the wagon?” yo’ see, boss, I’se a membah of chu’ch, but de mule ain't, so I hauls. the pa’ot to fu'nish the cussin’ fo’ de mule.” Continuous music. Bub- bling gayety; sparkling life. Cool, refreshing — on the rgth floor of | The BILTMORE \. Tang ‘ATERMAN’S Ideal Fountain Pen is the product of an organization that for the past thirty-six years has been_ making fountain pens exclusively. Today the line of Waterman’s Ideal Fountain Pens covers every proven advance in fountain pen construction. It includes the regular and safety types of dropper filled o and pump and lever filling devices the self-filling types. Being pioneers and recognized leaders of the industry, we are the natural market for inventors with ideas that in their judgment would improve our product. No one is or has been keener to investigate these claims than we are, because it has been our intention from the first that if ever a better fountain pen than Waterman’s Ideal was made we would make it. It has happened and will happen again that fountain pens appear on the market with “talking point” devices that during our far greater experience we have already experimented with and found either impractical or inferi- or to devices of our own intended for the same purpose. The man, woman, or child who buys Waterman’s Ideal Fountain Pen gets 100% fountain pen efficiency because every material process or device included in it has been proven by the longest years of experience and experiment as unequaled for its purpose. Back of every Waterman’s Ideal Fountain Pen is a world-wide service to assure its enduring satisfaction. THREE TYPES— Regular, Safety and Self-filling, $2.50 to $250 Selection and Service at Best Stores Throughout the World L. E.Waterman Company, 191 Broadway,N.Y. 129 Se, State Street, Chicago 24 School Street, Boston 17 Stockton Street, Sas Francisco H. C. of L. in Bible Days “T WILL do without haircuts.”—d bsalom, “T will make my own slings.”"— David. “ Sooner than pay house-rent, I will live on a boat."—Noah, “I will dance without _ slippers.”— Salome. “T will buy no more wedding rings.”— Solomon. “Not even to express anger will I rend my garments.”—Moses. 923 “Writing materials being so costly, I will inscribe fewer epistles.”—Paul. “To save wear and tear, I will drive less furiously.”—Jehu. “T will exercise without clubs and dumb- bells.”"—Samson. “We will do without clothes."—Adam and Eve. . “We will abolish fuel from the fiery furnace.”—Shadrach, Meshach and Abed- nego. Harold Seton. comicbooks.com