Life, 1922-01-19 · page 10 of 34
Life — January 19, 1922 — page 10: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
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.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
1, The Farmer: Put your bear in there and come up to the house—I’ll give you somethin’ to eat. T'll put this harness away and I'm as hungry as—— 2. The Hired Man: then I'll go to dinner. Why did he do that? I only wanted to play with him! 5. The Bear: Miserable black villain—I'll knock-a 6. The Dago: your head off! My Rat READ to-day in a popular periodical, in a column of miscellaneous information headed “Did You Know—?” that “The United States Public Health Service has dis- covered that there is at least one rat for every one of the 110,000,000 human beings in the United States.” This grave announcement from a Government Bureau seems to imply that I, as one of the 110,000,000, am en- titled to “at least one rat” (I, will disregard all possible fractions and call it just one), and I infer that the Bureau of Public Health Service is holding mine to be called for, as I have not so far received it. T hasten to inform the editor of the “Did You Know—?” column that I, for one, was not informed of this. I have had apparently, for I do not know how long a time, an absolute equity in “at least one rat” and never knew it. Not that I care particularly about rats, but in these days of diminished investments it is a pleasant novelty to find myself possessed of more property than I thought I owned. It is true that I derived no income from this source during the last calendar year. I certainly reported none in my Federal income tax return, and if the Commissioner men- tions the subject when he writes to inform me that I have made errors in such-and-such Schedules, items, letters and lines, I am ready for him. Not only did my rat return no income, but I am informed in the same illuminating para- graph in the “Did You Know—?” column that he “cost !> cent a day for upkeep” during that period. I knew m) money was going somewhere and this accounts for part of it. And I do not even know what my rat looks like. Tt seems to me that the only way that the Government can collect any tax whatever on my rat is in case I dispos: of him at a profit during the year, when he would, of course, comicbooks.com