Life, 1921-07-07 · page 13 of 34
Life — July 7, 1921 — page 13: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains two distinct satirical pieces: **"Path of Duty"** presents a brief joke about marriage reform: a woman married a prohibitionist (a man opposed to alcohol) hoping to reform him, but he remained unchanged—the satire mocking both naive optimism about reforming spouses and prohibition advocates. **The beach scene cartoon** satirizes parental attitudes toward children's durability. A mother asks why her daughter wants a new doll when her current one is fine. The child responds "It's too indestructible"—humor derived from the irony that parents typically *want* toys to be durable, yet this child finds indestructibility boring. This reflects early 20th-century attitudes toward childhood entertainment and consumerism. Both pieces use domestic scenarios to mock social pretensions and family dynamics of the era.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
July 7 sand dollars—for a broken back fifteen thousand dollars? I will play the game out, fight to the finish and die, looking in the wrong direc- tion. Who can tell? it may yet be my happy fate to know, as the wheels of the Juggernaut pass over me, that my end has been a worthy one. It may yet be possible, in that last crunching moment, to use my carefully composed last words— a limousine; I die happy!” g a sapphic to the Traffic, in vocals un-seraphic, Blended of a myriad honks From the Battery to the Bronx. O Traffic, hydrant-headed monster that vou are, I defy you! Bla—a—a—a—ah! (Exit, looking in the wrong direction.) Path of Duty “QHE married him to reform him.” “Indeed. What was he?” “A prohibitionist.” POLITICIAN never buries the hatchet unless he has an ax to grind. Nodd: Step in the car and visit a wretched family with me. Todd: Don’t ask me, my dear—I visited a wretched family yesterday. I simply couldn't be so depressed two days in succession, Her Mother: What! you want a new doll? Why, darling, what’s the matter with the one you've got? Editha: It’s too indestructible. comicbooks.com