Life, 1921-11-17 · page 31 of 34
Life — November 17, 1921 — page 31: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains three distinct items: **"Jeremiad on Dancing"** (left): A humorous poem by P. C. Calhoun mocking the author's own contradictory feelings about dancing. He claims dancing is "silly" and unmanly compared to "real" work, yet admits he enjoys it anyway—a self-aware satire of pretentious masculinity and social hypocrisy common in the era. **"Democracy"** (center): A Bell Telephone advertisement presenting the company as democratically owned. It claims 175,000+ stockholders represent "the people," including women and working-class members. This is propaganda framing corporate capitalism as populist—a claim that would strike modern readers as absurd. **"She Will Not Marry Him"** (left): A brief item about activist Bouck White, mocking his repeated failed marriages. The joke: he's a publicity-seeker whose talent is getting newspaper attention, not domestic stability—a cautionary tale about vanity. The advertisements (Pear's Soap) are incidental.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Jeremiad on Dancing \ aaa night when I hitch the elas- tic Which fastens my vest to my pants, eree with the viewpoint monastic: a silly amusement to dance, To handle a gun or a lance— There’s a man’s job; but dancing—aw, thunder! (Or la! la! as they say in France) Why do I like it, I wonder? Aside from the somewhat fantastic Idea some persons advance, That the fox-trot and waltz are gym- nastic, It's a silly amusement to dance, One trips over young débutantes— (The evening’s one vast social blun- | der), | (Or stumbles around with one’s aunts; Why do I like it, I wonder? Democracy An) | mistakenly drastic? \n Las one who but rants, “__of the people, by the people, for the people” Knowing nothing? Or am I just plas- | tic? oe. 8 i I's a silly amusement to dance People of every walk of life, in This democracy of Bell telephone That's sure... (Hark! The waltz every state in the Union, are repre- owners is greater in number than the irom “Penzance” sented in the ownership of the Bell entire population of one of our “Get Out and Get Under”? Telephone System. People from — states; and more than half of its \ Me , hie ratte > every class of telephone users, mem- °WMETS are women. : bers of every trade, profession and There is one Bell telephone share- L'ENVOI business, as well as thousands of holder for every 34 telephone sub- kid! Come on—take a chance! trust funds, are partners in this great- scribers. No other great industry a é | made up of the more than 175,000 its shares; no other industry is so shunned her.) . completely owned by the people it Why do I like it? 1 wonder! stockholders of the American serves, in the truest sense. the Bell P. C. Calhoun. | Telephone and Telegraph Company System is an organization “of the r , < his great body of people people, by the people, for the She Will Not Marry the’ . c . larry Him clasped hands they would form a people. Recent news from Boston includes the intelligence that Bouck White has Vine ci than 150 miles long. Itis, therefore, not surprising that moved to those parts and still retains Marching by your door, it would the Bell System gives the best and voice after his experiences at take more than 48 hours of cease- cheapest telephone service to be ushen. He says he is looking for a less tramping for the line to pass. found anywhere in the world. ct wi When found, he aspires ) marry her, and will want her “to se her food and cook it, to make her sn clothes, to get back into the sim- ~\ AMERICAN TELEPHONE AND TELEGRAPH COMPANY primitive days. No doubt there are girls in Boston AND (ASSOCIATED COMPANIES ashe can do all that and much more. One Policy, One System, Universal Service, and all directed \o doubt the makings of perfect wiv toward Better Service wounds there at least as much as els —— pre TEES a where and possibly more. But why should any such girl marry Bouck? We 5 all read about him periodically for Matohless for the ist ten years. He has been tried Complexion as a husband several times already and h Since 1789 returned each time to the bargain coun- ter. His gift is not for matrimony, but purely for publicity. His great talent is for getting into the newspapers, and ior that he is remarkable. “BELL SYSTEM” Howarp: Schuyler sees no fault in his wife. Now Iwi At all druggists Jay: Blessed be the tie that blinds. meee ” comicbooks.com