Life, 1922-01-05 · page 12 of 34
Life — January 5, 1922 — page 12: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
**Top Cartoon:** A man on horseback discusses "limited armament business" with another man. The rider boasts he'll "git shot with two cannon es one"—a humorous take on military excess and the absurdity of competitive armament buildup, likely referencing early 20th-century arms races among nations. **Bottom Section:** "History Made Easy" presents a visual gag titled "The Middle of a Perfect Day—4836 Years Ago," depicting the Tower of Babel confusion with multiple figures speaking different languages (indicated by speech bubbles). The accompanying text humorously explains how Esperanto speakers got separated during historical events like labor disputes and international negotiations, attributing modern communication breakdowns to ancient linguistic confusion. It's satirizing both language barriers and labor disputes of the era.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
“Whut d’ye think o” this limited armament business?” “It’s just a matter o” taste. Ez fer me, I’d jest ez soon git shot with two cannon ez one.” The Middle of a Perfect Day—4836 Years Ago History Made Easy How Esperanto Came Out of the Tower of Babel T is well known that operations were permanently discontinued on the Tower of Babel because of a confusion of tongues. It is not difficult to understand that disorder arose when a Swedish boss undertook, in Pennsylvania Dutch, to give orders to a Siamese riveter, who suddenly discovered that he understcod nothing but Yiddish, while an Egyptian walking delegate tried in Spanish to persuade a Welsh mortar-mixer, who spoke Turkish, that he ought to strike for more pay. For some hours the two union men in the picture opposite have been trying to reach an understanding. It is sup- posed to be shortly after the noon hour, in fact. The Persian on the right has exhausted his Scotch vocabulary in an effort to persuade his companion to vote for the six-hour day at the next Sinn Fein meeting, and the Chinese listener doesn’t know whether he is be- ing coerced into working overtime or invited to have Russian tea. The Dan- ish agitator on the left is experiencing much difficulty in making himself un- derstood in Ojibway and the Punjab salesman is getting nowhere in Bohe- mian with the French contractor, who has made a sudden specialty of modern Greek. comicbooks.com