Life, 1921-08-04 · page 7 of 34
Life — August 4, 1921 — page 7: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This satirical piece mocks various beach social situations and annoying characters. The cartoons depict: 1. **A woman in old-fashioned bathing attire** being knocked around by waves—commentary on dated swimming fashion or clumsy swimmers. 2. **A couple on the beach** with a man apparently making unwanted advances, satirizing inappropriate behavior. 3. **"Mr. Wimple"**—described as a self-appointed beach "life" who aggressively demonstrates water tricks, dunking people and showing off. 4. **Judge Wilbert Pippenny**—apparently a real local figure who abandons his bathing suit rather than retrieve it when the tide comes in. The humor targets recognizable beach personalities: the fashion-unconscious swimmer, the overeager show-off, and the dignified person humbled by circumstance.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
August 4 Picked Up on the Beach By GLUYAS WILLIAMS There has never been a satisfactory ex- planation of why anyone indulges in surf- bathing. The sensation of being whirled head over toes is similar to that of drink- ing a quart of whisky that you have bought irom the dark-whiskered stranger street corner, and the consequences y to be as serious. At least so Mr. Ferdinand Stubb, who, after stood on his face, mistook Miss Mif- : part of the pier, with every pros- pect of being moored for life. There is really no privacy on a beach. How could Mr. Mr. Wimple is the self-appointed life of the beach. His Horatio Hardcastle know, when he settled himself for a fund of jests is apparently inexhaustible; he can splash nap, that his playful nephews would make a sandcastle of water down your throat when you come up for breath, he him, and why should his daughter Heloise and her turtle- can push you off the raft or pull you under water by your dove suspect the inviting hillock? After listening to the leg. His best trick of all is to imitate a horseshoe crab by love-nest stuff as long as he could, Mr. Hardcastle decided swimming under water and suddenly nipping your toe. His enough was enough—and said so. technique in this particular is almost Rawless. The tide waits for no man, not even for Judge Wilbert Pinpenny. What with the warm day, the tempting water and the secluded cove, the usually discreet Judge decided not to bother to go back for his bathing-suit. He really is not to be blamed, for he had no way of knowing that the Throckwhipples would choose this spot, of all others, for their picnic. Be that as it may, the tide is going out at the rate of three feet an hour, and the judge had bet- ter do something about it. comicbooks.com