Life — November 24, 1921 — page 3: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# "The 1922 Baby" — Life Magazine This page satirizes post-WWI American anxieties about moral decline. The poem presents an adult offering a child increasingly scandalous bedtime stories: divorce, the Ku Klux Klan's violence (including murders), and implied worse content. The child's nurse cuts off the storytelling, calling the child "tiresome." The accompanying illustration shows a man sitting dazed beside a wrecked car—visualizing society's damage from these modern ills. The caption "Voice from the Wreck: Hi! Silas, did you get his number?" sarcastically references insurance claims and normalcy amid chaos. The satire critiques how 1920s American culture exposed children to shocking contemporary problems—Klan violence, divorce scandals, automobile accidents—treating them as casual bedtime conversation while society spiraled into disorder.