Life, 1921-09-08 · page 8 of 36
Life — September 8, 1921 — page 8: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a straightforward health and fitness article by Lionel Roquefort, not political satire. It presents six simple exercises—The Reverse English, The Jolly Periscope, The Zoom-A, The "Cheerio," The Entente Cordiale, and The Tee-To-Tum—illustrated with diagrams of a man performing various stretches and movements. The article encourages readers to spend ten minutes daily on these exercises for health maintenance, comparing their benefits to observing animals at the zoo. The exercise names appear whimsical rather than satirical. This reflects early-20th-century Life magazine's mix of humor, advice, and cultural commentary aimed at middle-class American readers interested in physical fitness and wellness.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
With apologies to PHYSICAL CULTURE The Snappy Six Simple Means to Get Well and Stay Well HEN a small child I was fre- W quently taken to the zoo. What impressed me there most were the animals. Considering each animal’s rather close confinement, I wondered, childishly, how it kept so well. In the Museum of Natural History, I knew, animals were stuffed. But I was also keenly aware that that was not proper treatment for a live animal. Although a small boy (3 ft. 4 in.) I had an acute sense of discrimination. For many years I went to the zoo and observed. I observed the blue-faced mandrill, the red-eyed vireo, the yellow- winged bibi and the duck-billed plat- ypus. Common to each one was a certain form of systematic rest- lessness. The platypus, for in- stance, would spend hours strid- eet. 245 mo. ing back’ and _ forth in his en- closure with meas- ured tread. Finally, I went to the most active of them all—the Giant Sloth (Bradypus tridacty- lus enor- FIG. 5. THE ENTENTE CORDIALE FIG. 1._ THE REVERSE NGLISH = By Lionel Roquefort mus). As, from day to day. I observed his antics, now grave, now utterly ridicu- lous, it dawned upon me that it was by these antics that the sloth kept himself in natural and normal bobbish- ness. By upsetting himself, he was setting himself up. Thus I evolved theSnappy Six—simple exercises for the sedentarily occupied. Though modified to conform to the peculiarities of the human form divine, the Snappy Six are based upon the apparently aimless gam- FIG. 2, THE JOLLY PERISCOPE bols of the Giant Sloth. The benefits remain the same. Eliminating the time-clock, there is a singular similarity between the — office-worker and his captive brother of the zoological gardens. If you, feel your- self going “stale,” you would do wise- ly to consider FIG. 6. THE TEE-TO-TUM the Snappy Six illustrated on this page. Ten minutes a day devoted to the elongation of the trapezius (as in teover# the Jolly Periscope) or the tortion of the latissimus dorsi (as in the “Cheerio’’), as well as proper attention to the other exercises, will write your own health, accident, fire, burglar and weather insurance policies. adm he h nati T imm fitte now bush the back the tainl 7 mad the note vari ’plar and had comicbooks.com