Life, 1921-07-21 · page 26 of 34
Life — July 21, 1921 — page 26: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
**Top Cartoon**: This satirizes Prohibition's failure. The poem mocks the 1920 Volstead Act, which banned alcohol. The irony: Americans claimed prohibition would eliminate poverty and domestic violence (the "drunken father selling his baby's shoes" scenario), yet the speaker reveals they've simply replaced legal drinking with illegal speakeasies ("I know a place / Where, for a hundred bucks a case"). The crowded bar scene illustrates that Prohibition created black-market drinking culture rather than eliminating alcohol consumption. **Bottom Cartoon**: A war veteran describes spotting a German U-boat (submarine) during WWI, but uses comically exaggerated geographic markers ("the big wave," "the hollow on the left") to describe its location. This satirizes how war stories become increasingly embellished and absurd over time—the veteran's precise recollection seems dubious given the vague nautical reference points. Both pieces mock American hypocrisy and unreliable memory.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
LIFe® Jul Oh, Man! (With apologies to Briggs) C HEN, in years past, the drunkard A sold of pi The baby’s only pair of shoes, erary He’d spend the proceeds, we've been told, ) pract On booze. novel And then, when he’d acquired a souse, read. He'd chase his family from the house, In Ss ing ¢ Enraged by this unwholesome fact, doub The U. S. clamored for the lid. > got t “Pass,” it implored, “the Volstead Act!” not | We did. ~ D erary We sacrificed our wines and beers we sl And won our women’s grateful tears, to N afe | And since the curse has left our land, ° In See how much better off we've been we te Without champagne and whisky and tory” Sloe gin! read Besides, old top, I know a place even Where, for a hundred bucks a case— killer —Baron Ireland. mer . As AURELS that are rested upon soon It is gle 3 to th mean lishes novel other A a his “He mak “Alic have thing we 0 If Former Doughboy (returning to Europe for a visit): See that big wave? Fellow Passenger: Yes. “And the hollow on the left?” “Yes.” “Well, right in the centre of that is where we first saw the U-boat.” comicbooks.com