Life, 1921-10-20 · page 12 of 34
Life — October 20, 1921 — page 12: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This cartoon depicts a street scene where a clerk is showing hair nets to a girl customer. The humor is a visual pun: the girl asks if the clerk has "invisible" hair nets, and when shown one, she cannot see it—because it's invisible. The joke plays on the absurdity of marketing an "invisible" product; the girl's literal inability to view the merchandise undercuts the sales pitch. The surrounding crowd of onlookers suggests this is a public transaction that has drawn attention, possibly satirizing both gullible consumers and dubious sales tactics of the era. The cartoon mocks both the product marketing and the customer's expectations in early 20th-century consumer culture.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
We’re Looking, Too Girl: Clerk: Have you hair nets? Yes, ma’am. Girl: Is Henry’s Career Noiseless? N an indignant letter to the public, through the medium of the newspapers, a railroad magnate cries down Henry Ford's success with his railroad, stating that Henry’s combi- nation of low rates, high wages, and good service is con- sidered by many to be responsible for the flourishing con- dition of the venture, while as a matter of fact ... here the magnate loses himself in technicalities. It does not seem to occur to the magnate that if things were as they ought to be a combination of low rates, high wages and good service should automatically insure the success of any railroad. It would appear that Henry has propounded the theory— quite new in business circles—that operations conducted along strictly ethical lines can be successful, and has backed up his theory with facts. -Such a revolutionary notion is too much for the modern business man to swallow; hence wild howls and direful prophecies of failure. Meanwhile, Henry keeps the comparatively noiseless tenor of his way. There is no knowing what we may next hear from him; he may even demonstrate to an astonished world that it is possible to give the consumer the best goods pos- sible for the least money possible without going bankrupt; that is, unless he is hanged for interfering with the return to’ normalcy. Gii Invisible? Clerk: Yes, ma’am. Let me see one. Defying the Lecture Lightning , I SHE report that Thomas Burke, author of “Limehous ights,” has recently refused an offer of over ten thou- sand dollars to lecture in the United States must fill every- body concerned with consternation. So far as is know, Mr. Burke is the first foreign celebrity to refuse an offer from an American lecture bureau. His name will undoubt- edly go down among the great moral heroes of. history Probably no record will ever be published of the frightful struggle that took place within him. That he emerged triumphant, however, does not lesse our concern. That he has been able to gain this gre: victory over himself can mean only one thing: others will follow his example. 5 s from now it may even be possible that no British celebrity will come over to talk to us. Thus our civilization, already on its last legs, will be given its final quietus. And we can see now the wisdom of Providence, who never permitted us to have a literature. We may manage to survive without civilization; but it would have been too bad to get a literature started, only to have it die on our hatids because it was neglected by those who had succeeded a last in resisting the temptation of coming over here to kee? it alive. After all, things might be worse. comicbooks.com