Life, 1921-12-22 · page 8 of 34
Life — December 22, 1921 — page 8: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a satirical illustration of an elegant woman holding a small fly on her fingertip. The cartoon's caption references a common proverb about something small spoiling something otherwise perfect. The accompanying text discusses various social and political observations of the era, including comments on: - Peace negotiations and disarmament conferences - Economic conditions (plasters/unemployment in England) - Gender and fashion commentary - International relations and character formation - Chinese women's literacy - Business and spiritualism The cartoon likely represents a contemporary concern about a seemingly minor issue disrupting broader social or political harmony, though the specific "fly" isn't explicitly identified in the visible text. The illustration's style and subject matter are typical of Life magazine's satirical approach to early 20th-century American society.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
‘HE motto of the disarmament con- ference: Peace, Dead or Alive. JL The Powers are not likely to have much peace until they declare a ten-year dip- lomatic holiday. -L The paradoxical thing about short hair and short skirts is that they make men long. The Medicinal Wine bill in Congress has failed to pass. We are afraid that the Ship of State will never reach port. Somehow or other our reformers can- not be persuaded to let bad enough alone. ing for ten years, there will be no war- ship-launching. The saving to the United States, in sarsaparilla alone, will be enormous. -L In Jack Dempsey’s Memoirs, he will doubtless tell us how he climbed the ladder of success, round by round. aL aL There are 13,000 plaster- ers in England to-day, as compared with 19,000 in 1914. It’s a good trade if you can stick. aL The German mark is doing dropping its Christmas early. Several hundred newspa- per correspondents are writing up the Armament Conference, not including H. G. Wells, who is writ- ing it down. aL We suggest that the un- derstudies in musical com- edies might organize as the Nasal Reserves. -L If Woodrow Wilson would write a book about Tu- multy, we might learn something about Wilson. aL The motto of Poor Busi- ness: It pains to advertise! JL “Oh, for an eye-opener,” sighed Cyclops the morn- The Fly in the Ointment The busy B’s— Beggars, burglars, bootleggers. aL “We will keep our army but halve it,” says M. Briand. You can’t keep your army and halve it too. LL Officially, nations love each other like brothers. Un- officially, they love each other like brothers-in-law. JL They say that environ- ment is a very great in- fluence on character. Per- haps you've noticed all those crooked streets around the New York City Hall? +L The majority of Chinese women cannot read or write. What of it? That doesn’t stop them from using the telephone. Spiritualism hasn't vinced us, or, as we suc- cessful business men say, we aren't sold on the ouija stuff. And yet we have a con- ing after. aL China is to “keep her integrity,” but in- tegrity is not under any circumstances to be confused with Yap. aL Literary relic of a bygone era: “She let her hand remain in his for a mo- ment, then gently withdrew it.” aL A celebrated peace-lover of Detroit seems to be advising people to beat their Fords into plowshares. The point of the average after-dinner speech is located at the intersection of the highest possible longitude and the lowest possible platitude. JL Most of the millions seem to be made by men who think that Bartlett’s “Fa miliar Quotations” is a book on Wall Street. aL Well, if there is to be no warship-build- notion that during the talk at Washington on the scrapping of ships, a message like this must have been received: “Approve plan. Davy Jones.” JL A Naval Holiday would give the tax- payers of the world a chance to save up for the financing of bigger nav +L What will we do when every cause for a New Year’s resolution has been pre- hibited? comicbooks.com