Life — April 27, 1922 — page 8: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# "The Apple's Prayer" - Life Magazine Cartoon Analysis This single-panel cartoon depicts anthropomorphized apples with a caption reading "Lead us not into fermentation." The joke targets Prohibition-era anxieties about alcohol production. The image shows apples in what appears to be a cider press, with the heading "THE WAY OF THE TRANSGRESSOR IS HARD CIDER"—a pun on the biblical phrase "the way of the transgressor is hard." The satire works on multiple levels: apples "pray" to avoid being processed into hard cider (illegal under Prohibition), while the setup mocks both religious piety and the widespread illegal alcohol production occurring despite the 18th Amendment (1920-1933). The cartoon assumes readers recognize cider-making as common bootlegging activity during this period.