Life, 1922-02-09 · page 10 of 34
Life — February 9, 1922 — page 10: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This satirical story mocks bureaucratic rigidity. An English author's illustrated book was sent to an American publisher, who shipped the drawings to England for return. The package got caught in customs red tape: the Examiner demanded a six-month bond before releasing it, citing regulations about "value." The Publisher protested the drawings were worthless as illustrations—they had no independent value. The Examiner skeptically replied they might be valuable anyway, so the bond stood. The accompanying cartoon shows dogs, with the caption referencing "Mrs. Boston Terrier's new pups were all born without corkscrew tails"—likely mocking prohibition's unintended consequences. The satire targets mindless adherence to rules regardless of practical reality.
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Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
HIS is a sad true story. And the moral of it is that it is a great and glorious thing to live in a free country where there is no tyrannical officialdom, and none of that Red Tape they have in England. An English author wrote a little book of verse. And an English artist drew some little pictures for the little book. And when the Author let it out that he meant to visit America, an American publisher decided that he would publish the book at lightning speed during the Author’s visit. So the Drawings were sent across the Ocean in a very swift ship, and they reached the Post Office at New York in seven days. Then they spent seven weeks Some- where in America. But many things happened during that time. Quite soon after they arrived the Publisher was told about it, and the Publisher told his LIFE Custom Is King A, P. Herbert Broker to go down-to the Post Office and enter into a bond that the Draw- ings were to be returned to England in six months, and were therefore not dutiable, and secure the package and take it away forthwith, as the matter was urgent and brooked no delay. After a week the Broker telephoned the Pub- lisher and asked him to come down and identify the Drawings. The Publisher went down with the Broker and selected the package from among a thousand packages and he ad- dressed an Examiner and humbly prayed that the package might be entered on a six months’ bond (as above), since the matter was urgent and brooked no de- lay. The Examiner scowled at the words “bond,” “urgent” and “delay,” and said that if the Publisher required the Draw- ings quickly he had better enter them in the usual way, and pay some duty on them. (Carelessly) he scribbled on the package the words “VALUE $250” The Publisher became hysterical anq showed the Drawings to the Examiner, There was a picture of a Suiil, and a picture of a Lobster; and a Whale, and a Centipede, and an Earw’g, and a Bee; and a Sturgeon, and « Clam, and a Glow-worm, and a Pig. (The Examiner looked suspiciously at the Snail.) The Publisher explained that the Drawings had no commercial va!ue, be- ing unvaluable except as_ illustrations if. a printed book. That they ad no value of any kind, and, anyway, they had very little value, and in the «!terna. tive that they were going back t» Eng. land in six months, so it didn’t matter if they had a value. The Examiner looked suspicic sly at the Clam; and he said, “It musia took that guy some time to do them p.chers say guy coul ever! “Did you hear of the latest horrible effects of prohibition?” “No, what are they?” “Mrs. Boston Terrier’s new pups were all born without corkscrew tails.” comicbooks.com and