Life — January 19, 1922 — page 10: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# Analysis This page contains two distinct items: **Top: A four-panel comic strip** about a farmer who hires a man to work and then puts a bear in the house as a "joke." The hired man discovers the bear, flees in panic, and the farmer's bear chases him away. The final panel shows the farmer's dog attacking the bear. It's a simple slapstick narrative with no political content—just physical comedy about a prank gone wrong. **Bottom: An essay titled "My Rat"** where the author humorously describes owning an undocumented rat, claiming it generates unreported income. The piece satirizes government taxation and the difficulty of accounting for all assets, suggesting the author has more property than he's declared to tax authorities. It's gentle satire about tax evasion and bureaucratic absurdity rather than serious political commentary.