Life, 1922-05-04 · page 10 of 34
Life — May 4, 1922 — page 10: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This cartoon satirizes stubborn resistance to change. The illustration shows two men in coats and hats confronting each other near horse-drawn vehicles on a city street. The caption reads: "Mark my words, gen'lemen, they'll come back to th' boss yit!" The "die-hard" figure appears to be someone clinging to outdated methods or technology—likely representing resistance to automobiles and modern transportation. His insistence that horse-drawn carriages will "come back" mocks those unable to accept inevitable progress. The accompanying text discusses artistic talent, originality, and finding one's unique style—suggesting the page's broader theme concerns adapting to modern ideas rather than recycling old conventions. The cartoon exemplifies Life magazine's satirical commentary on social and technological resistance.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
- LIFE At the Spring Academy “—suppose they are trying to do something original, to get away from the old ideas. But what [ say is, the old masters are good enough for me—” “—do wish Josie would take some lessons. She's so artis- tic,—makes all her own Christmas presents. You ought to seé the cute little powder-puff bags that she made last—” “rather nice color, but that shoulder is insincere—” “want to get something to hang in the dining-room be- tween those two ducks that Fred shot last Fall. We had them mounted and they look just as natural! Don’t you think a fruit piece or a nice cheerful barnyard scene would be—” “—awfully talented and all that, but hardly the sort of person that you would want to invite to your home. You know how these artists are—" “—not a bad draughtsman, but much too popular—” “don’t see anything out of the way in nudes, myself, but with the children and their friends always running in and out of the house it doesn’t seem quite—” “—met him at a tea the other day, and the first thing he did was to ask me to sit for my portrait —said I have such a paintable face. He wants to do me in my pearls and that big black hat—” “—Now there! That’s what I call a lovely picture. See how cunning that baby is, trying to get at those gok I wonder how much the artist would want for— “—used to draw quite a little, myself. I always used to make place-cards for Mother, and I still have some (ibson girls that I copied,—and lots of people say that they can hardly tell them from the originals. Everybody told me | could have done something with my art if I had only kept it up, but what with one thing and another, I just couldn't seem to find the time to—” “rather interesting feeling he gets in those tomatoes, but the salad-bowl is all—” “—art, but I know what I like. And there isn’t a pic- ture here that I would have hanging on the walls of my house, not if you were to give me the whole lot for— Dy P, The Die-hard “Mark. my words, gen’lemen, they'll come back to th’ hoss yit!” comicbooks.com