Life, 1921-08-25 · page 21 of 34
Life — August 25, 1921 — page 21: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains two separate pieces: **Top Cartoon:** A simple joke about an impatient artist trying to paint a farmer who keeps fidgeting. The farmer explains he's waiting to detonate dynamite in an old tree stump and doesn't want to move until after the blast—revealing rural, frontier-era concerns that clash with the artist's needs. **"Submarine Badinage":** A humorous poem by Berton Braley featuring personified sea creatures (oyster, scallop, mussel, clam, crab) engaged in witty insults and wordplay. The shellfish trade increasingly elaborate comebacks until they run out of material. The poem is essentially nonsense verse playing on nautical/mollusk puns ("aquamonious spell," "oyster-crab") rather than containing political satire. Neither item appears to reference specific contemporary events or figures. The cartoon relies on rural stereotype humor; the poem is lighthearted wordplay. Both represent typical satirical magazine filler content from the early 20th century.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
el iF MVaF The Artist (to farmer who has been fidgeting around all morning): Am I i Farmer: your way here? Wa-al, naow—ther’ ain’t no partikler hurry—when ye git through—mos’ any time’ll be all right. Ye see, I've got a charge o’ dynamite in‘o thet ther’ ol’ stump. I’m a kinda waitin’ raoun” ter tetch off—when ye git through, Submarine Badinage By BERTON BRALEY ¢ HERE was a little oyster and he met a haughty scallop, / But the scallop said, “You bivalve, you uninter- f, esting polyp, eA ee easy “Get away from me, you mollusk, and you do it 2p, eS in a hustle Z ~ Or you'll get a painful wallop from the muscle of a mussel.” “Oh, you ugly, selfish shellfish,” said the oyster, you're a sham; Cease your highly foolish clamor, take a lesson from the clam, “Lest your crust crustacean rile me and your aggravating voice stir The accumulated venom of an irritated oyster!” Said the haughty scallop coldly, “Hush your everlasting blab. I can tell, by all your crabbing, you are just an oyster-crab, “And since oyster-crabs eat oysters, though it’s awful food to pick, You can eat yourself completely—and I hope it makes you sick. Then the oyster answered sharply, “At the risk of being rude I will simply state succinctly, all of me is fit for food, “While your edible components, as was known from times of yore, Are your muscle, Mr. Mussel, merely that and nothing more!” This subdued the haughty scallop, quite submerged him wit) its pith, And he beat it with whatever scallops have to beat it with So at length they made a finish of their aquamonious spell, And the oyster and the scallop each withdrew into his shell But the reason, I confess it, why I cut my story short Is because I can’t supply them with another good retort! comicbooks.com