Life, 1921-08-18 · page 25 of 35
Life — August 18, 1921 — page 25: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
**The Cartoon (top):** A father and daughter are riding horses near a fence. The daughter (Myra) complains about her horse's "ridiculous" complexion, asking for another mount. The father (implied speaker) responds that the horse's coloring "goes awfully well with your freckles"—a gentle, teasing joke about the daughter's own complexion. The satire mocks the vanity of privileged young women who fuss over superficial appearances. **The Text Content:** Morris Bishop's nostalgic piece "Grandmother's Garden" romanticizes an old, now-neglected garden that once hosted elegant social gatherings. It's sentimental period humor using exaggerated medical terms ("harelip," "hysteria") as flower names—a playful linguistic joke for educated readers. **The Questions Section:** This mocks college students' ignorance. A Leghorn is a breed of chicken, yet students called it a cow or hat. Arthur Brisbane is a newspaper writer/editor, yet students answered incorrectly. The final quip—"a man is known by the company he keeps away from"—is witty social commentary on choosing good associates.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
18 dugust Myra: Blanche: hl, Grandmother’s Garden IS an old-fashioned garden, now weed-grown and ragged, untended these many years. But once it was gay with flux and harelip and_ sal-hepatica; early anemias peeped out on the forest’s edge; the bees hummed a loud chorus amid the climbing hysteria embowering the low- browed porch in greenery. Wit stately forms have billowed down hese bleached alleys! Lovely ladies of the Jays of Madison and Jefferson, gay in the > crenelations and martingales, with flowe ed stomachers and pannikins. Many were the beaux and gallants, in periques and powdered knee-breeches, who paced besid: them. How often has this old garden heard the list of quaint, tuneful catches and mandalays! How often have long-forgotten voices joined in chorus to the tinkle of the old-fashioned spinach or clavicle! But to-day all is silent. No more do those delicate hands come to cull the languishing roses and the hardy connu- bials, to wield the hoe and maggot and trim the borders of box and quidnuncs, to spray the leafage with *hellefire to de- stroy the pestilent seersuckers. Where are those dainty figures now? Perchance in the gloomy realms of Plautus they dally in the grim gardens beyond the river Stynx; perchance, perchance, in the sunny fields of Elision they roam forever amid the bright and ever-blooming beds of asafetida! Z Morris Bishop. Oh, Dad, I wish you'd get me another mount. The complexiun of this one is so ridiculous. Why, Sis, I think it goes awfully well with your freckles. Questions HE Springfield Republican prints a list of questions put to college stu- dents. The second question is, “What is a Leghorn?” Four per cent. of the stu- dents, it seems, said that leghorns were cows. Hardly that, though the name fits the animals. But what did the rest of the students say? Did they say that leg- horns were hens or hats? How is it, neighbor, is a leghorn a hen or is it 2 hat? It used to be a hat. » Another question in that list was Arthur Brisbane a comic artist, an actor, an athlete or a newspaper writer?” How did the students answer that? How many said he is a financier, which is the right answer? sz 8 “Is T is also true that a man is known by the company he keeps away from. comicbooks.com