Life, 1921-11-10 · page 11 of 34
Life — November 10, 1921 — page 11: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
The top cartoon, "A Little Match After Lunch," depicts two golfers. One asks the other to "put your club in the hole and keep it still while I putt"—the humor relies on the double meaning of "hole," playing on the golf term while suggesting something crude. The cartoonist is A.B. Frost, a recognized illustrator of the era. Below, "The Letters of Alicia" by Robert Barnes Rudd presents correspondence addressing social life on New York's West Side. The letter discusses "charming" people living in that area and mentions Columbia University nearby, touching on class and cultural attitudes of the upper-middle-class readership Life targeted. The "Retained" and "The Alibi" sections are brief satirical snippets about social pretense and political excuses.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
A.8-Frosa, A Little Match After Lunch “Edward, will you please put your club in the hole and keep it still while I putt?” “Which hole, Henery?” The Letters of Alicia Robert Barnes Rudd No. III ARLING, I am afraid you completely mis- understood what I said. Of course, per- Caries Tawa) fectly lovely people do live on the West Side—lovely musical and journalistic and critical and medical people do live there. And once we knew a really charming family who lived on West 86th Street until they lost their nerve as soon as they could afford it and moved over to the sweetest little house in the East Thirties. It used to be a stable, but they had it done over wonderfully by a very good firm, and while it's rather small and there isn’t much light, they say that the Old Time Atmosphere—it simply reeks of “atmosphere” —more than makes up for the other things. Of course all around Columbia University—that has that statue in front of it, way up there beyond the Cathedral (why, dear, do you suppose that the bishop, or whoever it was, built the Cathedral up there so remote and far away from St. Bartholomew’s?)—well, anyway, all around there, it must be full of professors with their wives, just as cul- tivated as anything, who understand all about Relativity and probably even read Browning still. But just the same, you know that an address in the East Sixties is absolutely Sans Peur and Sans Reproche, and that the Ritz and Saint Thomas’ and Mr. Powys’ lecture and The Follies and the Philharmonics and the Strand and all the old reliable places just follow as a matter of course. But if you do come to town next year and have to live on the Upper West Side, darling, don’t let it worry you, please! I should die if I thought that anything J had said should make you feel badly about it. But just be cheerful and very noble in the right way and perhaps your father will weaken. And even if he doesn't, if you respect your- self, other people will respect you, no matter where you live. Affectionately yours, ALICIA, Retained “On, my! How did such an immensely important woman marry such a trivial man?” “Lacking a personal sense of humor, she probably felt the need of a comic supplement.” The Alibi Tue Secretary: This speech may get you into trouble. Tue Honoraste: Then you had better prepare a state- ment saying that I was misquoted by the newspapers. comicbooks.com