Life, 1922-05-18 · page 10 of 34
Life — May 18, 1922 — page 10: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a satirical humor column with a central cartoon. The cartoon depicts a couple dancing, with the woman asking "Is this the first?" and the man responding "No, it's the thirty-first; to-morrow is the first." The joke appears to reference **infidelity or romantic indiscretion**—the man is claiming numerous previous encounters while presenting tomorrow's meeting as "the first," suggesting deception about the relationship's nature. The surrounding text consists of brief satirical observations on contemporary American topics: Yiddish newspapers, tariffs, presidential bees, tax returns, zoos, tariffs again, church attendance during war, corsets, European budgets, golf, hard-boiled eggs, barber competitions, and pistol-carrying in New York. These brief items represent typical Life magazine satirical commentary on early 20th-century American social, political, and economic conditions, using humor to critique various aspects of society.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
EW YORK has a Yiddish news- paper called “Forward,” but it’s read backward. * LL School days will soon be over for everybody but the poor fish. aL A farmer, having been stung by a bee, lived for ten minutes. If it had been a presidential bee he might have lived four years. aL Judging by the tax returns, many Americans are convinced that their incomes are nothing to speak of. The seal at the zoo is quite the man-about-town. Day and night, he has a lively flapper on either side of him. aL Senator Simmons says the new tariff is the worst yet. Shucks! it always is. LL According to the official records, Thursday, April 27th, last, was a “crimeless night” in New York. The police are investigating. “I can’t imagine how the church has the face to exist after its re- creancy during the war.”—G. B.S. And yet, Mr. Shaw still has the face to exist. <i Her: No, it’s the thirty-first; to-morrow is the first. Corset makers are urging men to wear their products on the ground that somebody ought to wear them. aL The problem before every European nation is to balance its budget and keep three balls in the air at the same time. aL “Golf is no longer a game for the idle rich."—News Item. It never was. It was a game for the busy rich.* aL A hard-boiled yegg has just been sent to jail for fifteen years for robbing a man of $15. Does that make him a dollar-a-year man? aL The ladies’ campaign should not be to stop taking their husbands’ names, but to stop taking them in vain. Lloyd George wants America at the Genoa Conference because she would come free and disentangled. And America doesn’t want to go because she wants to stay that way. Him: Is this the first? The recent improvement in demand for wool probably was due to supply- ing delegates to Genoa with enough for pulling over one another's eyes. aL They are beginning to develop oil wells in New Jersey. This ought to throw some oil on the troubled mosquitoes. JL An American is a man who uses “old bean,” “priceless old thing,” “jolly.” “pally” and “wot” in trying to talk like an Englishman. Twenty barbers competed recently for a prize offered to the speediest shaver and hair-cutter. The gentlemen sup- plying heads and faces for the purposes of the contest were decorated for valor in extra-hazardous service. Privateers, in the olden days, used to get permission from the government be- fore going out after prizes. The goy- ernment does better than that for them now; it not only gives permission, but builds a tariff wall around the prizes, L Dr. Steinmetz, the man who put lightning on a substantial basis, is now beginning to doubt that there is ether. Evidently he hasn't bought any native rye this year. L The term “publicist” has been ap- plied by the New York World to Bernard Shaw. If this thing keeps up, the newspapers will yet refer to Babe Ruth as a baseball player. LL All play and no work makes Jack a plumber. LL A prize is offered for the best slogan to stimulate travel. “Cheese it; the cops!” aL The buying of a Senate seat arouses considerable righteous in- dignation in the breasts of many Senators. It’s a bad precedent. Some of them can’t afford it. New York policemen have been ordered to round up all the known crooks in town. But it’s a ten to one bet that when it’s over there'll be just as many hat-check boys at large as before. LL Bryan is telling us whence, and Conan Doyle is telling us whither. Our. present whereabouts, however, is the thing we want to know. JL This is the wrong time for Beveridge of Indiana to run for the Senate. The Anti-Saloon League is sure to oppose a man with a name like that. L The prize for raising the largest head of cabbage goes to the young commence- ment orator. aL And on the other hip New Yorkers are carrying pistols. comicbooks.com