Life, 1922-01-12 · page 22 of 34
Life — January 12, 1922 — page 22: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a humorous tall tale mocking both colonial big-game hunting culture and American exaggeration. A British Major in India asks an American about hunting in the States. The American absurdly claims to hunt woodchucks using trained elephants, a howdah (elephant carriage), rifles, and periscopes—the exact apparatus used for hunting tigers in India. The joke satirizes the pretentiousness of big-game hunters by applying their elaborate, expensive methods to catching common American rodents. It's also self-deprecating American humor: the narrator treats a humble woodchuck with the same grandiose seriousness that colonial hunters reserved for dangerous tigers, complete with a detailed narrative of an elaborate hunt culminating in twelve kills. The accompanying illustrations show the elephants and hunter in exaggerated action, emphasizing the absurd disproportion between weaponry and prey.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Now We Know It All N epigrammatist once wrote: “Clever women hide what they know; clever men hide what they don’t know.” How true it is. How wise is our epigrammatist to observe and remark on this! Now then: it is equally true that clever women hide what they don’t know; and clever men hide what they know. No one can deny this, wherefore we are forced to the logical conclusion that clever women hide what they know and what they don’t know, and clever men hide what they know and what they don’t know, and so we see that clever people hide everything! This being thus, and as clever people, being clever, must do their hiding thoroughly and successfully, how can we know they are clever people? May it not well be that people whom we consider dull and stupid are merely clever people busily doing their hiding? At any rate, this revelation of the hiding process clearly explains why we never, knowingly, meet any clever people. The Market ALE and Female stocks were under some pressure to-day. Bachelors Preferred were in great demand by the feminine traders. Manicures 1st Pref. were closely held with few transactions. Some embarrassment is re- ported of certain interests who have been plunging heavily in Chorus Girl Cumulative, and who have been caught short. Honeymoon Debentures are rather weak, reflecting still greater weakness in Baby Bonds. The new issue of Ali- mony Income Notes has been heavily oversubscribed by feminine traders. Gas Common is expected to be frecly taken shortly after the New Year. A sinking fund ap- plicable to the retirement of United Navy is rumored. Sub- marine is under heavy pressure. We recommend a flier in Aeroplane, which is due for a rise. Amalgamated ‘ea was very weak at the closing. We advise our clients to hold their Subway Strap Common and National Homebrew. Big Game Hunting in the United States A Woodchuck Shikar At the Royal Bengal Bicycle Club, Bengal, India, Major Tryad, veteran Shikari, was speaking of his latest tiger. “Do you have big game hunting in the States?” he asked me. “We have our woodchucks,” said I. “Ah, yes—woodchucks,” said the Major. “You hunt them on elephant-back?” “Trained elephant-back,” I affirmed. “Very delicate hunting. I particularly recall going out early one morning with little Lic-o-rice, my mahout. We set forth on Josie, my favorite woodchucking elephant. As dawn lifted. . . . Josie was suddenly face to face with a huge bull woodchuck. My Zeiss-Tessar periscope confirmed her discovery. ... She did, and raised him high over her head on a perfect line with my eight-bore automatic. I bagged him (no mean shot)... Ten miles across country of the roughest going, my sagacious Josie hotly pursued the nimble-footed The woodchuck was promptly at- tached to the howdah. The sun being well up, we soon sighted another. A snort of excitement, and Josie was off again, ,,, Pop! He went into his den. Brave Josie plunged her indestructible trunk in after him, eager to drag him forth. ... Tt was a perfect day. Sundown saw twelve woodchucks festooning the pavilion. I must suow you the photographs I took, Major.” comicbooks.com