Life, 1921-07-21 · page 17 of 34
Life — July 21, 1921 — page 17: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This cartoon satirizes diplomatic tensions between the Soviet Union and the West. Two figures with animal heads (an eagle and a bear, representing America and Russia respectively) sit across from each other with a woman between them. The eagle tells the bear it's suffering from "Leninrotskeyitis" (a disease named after Soviet leaders Lenin and Trotsky) and needs surgery—but advises consulting "a local surgeon" rather than permitting American intervention. The joke mocks the absurdity of the early Soviet state while poking fun at Western reluctance to directly confront Bolshevism. The title "Professional Etiquette" suggests the powers are observing diplomatic niceties even while regarding each other as diseased threats. The cartoon likely dates to the early 1920s, when anti-Bolshevik sentiment was high but direct Western military intervention in Russia had already failed.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Eagle: to bring this strong and comparatively respectable family stock in the line of Marlboroughs. Who knows? Consuelo’s ambitious marriage did not long stay happy, but, after all, she did get experience of life and possibly it de- veloped her, and possibly she will go out of life wiser and better than she came into it. If that happens, it may be said that she got something for her pains and for the money that was spent for her, even though so much of it went to stop the leaks in Blenheim castle. ADY RANDOLPH CHURCHILL had been an active figure in public life for forty odd yéars. She was a much better hand at marrying Churchills than the Vanderbilt lady remarked upon above. She came of a sporting family, used to live by its wits and that had rushed up into notoriety and wealth in Professional Etiquette You are suffering from Lenintrotskyitis. but not by us. We advise a local surgeon. New York almost as rapidly as John Churchill had done in Queen Anne’s time in London and much more reputably. To be married to Lord Randolph could not have been a sinecure, but she under- took it and stuck to it and apparently liked it from beginning to end. He was an extraordinarily interesting man. She was an extraordinarily interesting woman. She had brains, beauty, energy, audacity and a kind of perennial youth. Her specu- lation in Churchills was successful in all known respects. Her Jerome strain was not too good for Churchills, nor Church- ills too anything for her. Her son Win- ston is now a force in English politics and may live to be a force for good if some time he is converted. After her husband’s death, feeling perhaps the need of employment, she remarried a good deal, and not always fortunately or wisely, but on the whole she was the most interesting woman of her generation that these States contrib- uted to the aristocracy of England, which, in the mid-Victorian years in which she joined it, was still a going concern, and An operation is imperative, the head of the British procession. Well, at least, it has lasted out her time, and it is still picturesque. VERYBODY’ Taft, after many years of hard and varied work, is to be Chief Justice of the United States, with a modest assured in- come and nothing to do but sit in court, listen to argument and write opinions. It was a very popular appointment. Mr. Taft has always been a faithful pub- lic servant. He was a good judge in Ohio, a good administrator in the Philip- pines, a pretty good Secretary of War, and as good a President as he could be. He never was selfish or unkind if he could help it. He has been pretty good at a lot of jobs, including editorial writ- ing, but the general opinion is that he is best as a judge, and most people are glad to see him back in that employment. E. 8. Martin, comicbooks.com