Life, 1921-09-22 · page 32 of 34
Life — September 22, 1921 — page 32: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page is primarily advertisements with a humor section titled "Our Foolish Contemporaries." The main cartoon satirizes racial stereotypes and early 20th-century police practices. **The Cartoon:** A newly appointed Black police officer stops a Black man carrying a jug, suspecting illegal alcohol (likely during Prohibition era). The humor relies on dialect and minstrel-show stereotypes—the officer uses exaggerated speech ("You-all"), and the arrested man deflects with non-answers ("Tain't hay"). The patrolman's zealousness backfires when the man sarcastically asks if they're going to jail or church, implying the officer is overeager. **The Satire:** The piece mocks both figures: the newly empowered Black officer displaying excessive authority, and the streetwise man's evasive responses. It reflects period attitudes about Prohibition enforcement and presents racial caricatures as humor fodder. The byline credits the *Brooklyn Eagle*. The page also contains other brief humorous anecdotes and vintage advertisements for cigarettes, aspirin, and indigestion remedies.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
EGYPTIAN DEITIES “The Utmost in Cigarettes Plain End or Go: Tip “People of culture and refinement invariably “PREFER ‘Deities to any other cigarette spirin Then It’s Genuine Unless you see the name “Bayer” on tablets, you are not getting gen- uine Aspirin prescribed by physi- cians for 21 years and proved safe by millions. Always say “Bayer.” Aspirin is the trade mark of Bayer Manufacture of Monoaceticacidester of Salicylicacid. Dancing Continuous music. Bub- bling gayety; sparkling The BILTMORE NEW YORK FOR INDIGESTION FOOLISH MPORARIES By Negation A negro patrolman, recently ap- pointed, met a little brown man ¢ ing a little brown jug on the “avenue,” The patrolman thumped the jug ap- praisingly with his club. It sounded “ripe.” “What you-all got there, boy?” he asked suspiciously. “Ain't corn, is it?” “Tain’t hay,” said the little brown man sullenly. A moment later the zealous negro patrolman was marching the little brown man with the little brown jug down the avenue. They reached the shadow of police headquarters without a word passing between them. Then | the little brown man broke the silence. “Where’s this you takin’ me, big boy?” he asked. “Ain't jail, is it?” “Tain’t church,” the patrolman snapped.—Brooklyn Eagle. Invidious Aarons had had a beautiful fire, a perfect fire. Curtains, hung ostensibly to keep dust from the shelves, had served to carry the flames right round the warehouse. Into the blackened shop stepped Umpstein, full of condolences. “A bad job, Aarons, mein friend,” he said—‘“a bad job.” “Bad job!” ejacu- lated Aarons. “See here, how vould you improve on it?” —Bulletin (Sydney). A Crime Preventive The New Jersey Legislature suggests that all poison tablets should be made coffin-shaped to distinguish them from medicine. There is some talk of farm- ers, in the interest of small boys, trying to grow green apples to resemble little hospital cots.—Punch. Another Good Word Gone Wrong DavucuTer (on bathing beach): | simply loved those sandy coves at Lyme Regis. Mornuer (sharply): ’Melia! I won't ’ave you speaking of people in that vulgar way !—London Opinion. Adding Insult Socrotocy Proressor (to student): Mr. H- , I can't blame you for looking at your watch while I’m lectur- ing, but I do object to your holding it to your ear to make sure it hasn't | stopped.—Chicago Tribune. Internal Troubles “My father put down a disturbance last night.” “Ts that right?” “Yes; he ate a Welsh rarebit.” —Louisville Herald. “Wry. not,” asks a New York paper, “put Lord Bryce in the disarmament conference?” Why not, indeed? Brit- ain can get disarmament if she has the Bryce.—Boston Transcript. comicbooks.com ed =