Life, 1922-05-18 · page 23 of 34
Life — May 18, 1922 — page 23: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
**"A New Kind of Athletic Contest"** satirizes the era's obsession with comparing athletic champions across different sports. The piece references a real debate: boxer Jack Dempsey versus wrestler "Strangler" Lewis. The author mockingly proposes a absurd solution—throw famous athletes and public figures (Babe Ruth, Jim Thorpe, tennis player Tilden, Judge Landis) into a corral to simultaneously compete in boxing, chess, golf, piano-playing, and crime prevention, scoring points across all activities. The satire targets overheated sports journalism and the public's appetite for celebrity spectacles. References to the "Volstead Act" (Prohibition) and Commissioner Enright (a real Prohibition enforcer) add topical bite. The bottom cartoon about a "noiseless" invention is a separate, unrelated gag about an agent promoting an ineffectual device—a standard format for Life's humor.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
veen aliel and rited thor ying John this dred old A New Kind of Athletic Contest CONTROVERSY has been started recently over what would happen if Jack Dempsey were to meet Stran- gler Lewis, the wrestler, in a finish match, each man to use his own methods. Just as the partisans of each had laid the other out cold, along comes the Princeton water polo coach with the state- ment that Tait, the Princeton captain, could clean up either Lewis or Dempsey in the water. The «question is interesting. But why not develop it further? Why limit the discussion to wrestling, water polo and boxing? Why not arrange for a spectacle, in! short, which would eclipse any mere matching of individuals? Here is the plan: (1) Put Dempsey, Lewis, Tait, Jim Thorpe. Sammy Rzeschewski, Will Hays, Babe Ruth, Jim Barnes, William T. Tilden, Irvin S. Cobb, Josef Hofmann, Commissioner Enright and Judge Landis in a corral. (2) \t a given signal they are all to commence boxing, wrestling, playing water polo, kicking, playing chess, cen- soring, batting, playing golf, playing tennis, writing, play- ing the piano, preventing crime and suspending ball players at once Whoever scores the most knockouts, pin falls, touch goals, ticld goals, checkmates, censorships, home runs, holes, sets, anecdotes, sonatas, convictions and suspensions in a week is to be declared the winner. . \ suitable prize, such as a press notice in The Billboard or an engraved copy of the Volstead Act should be awarded to the victor. If the public wouldn't turn out in sufficient numbers at the announcement of such a spectacle to make the Demp- sey-Carpentier attendance look like an audience at a theo- sophic lecture in Hoboken, why—why, it wouldn't. Agent: Mechanics Lien on a Building Meditation EYOND black hills the storm clouds roll, The moon and stars are gone. Long thoughts are waking toward the dawn While night takes toll. koe * Then comes this thought, that makes the dark more deep: I brewed it well—but will the blamed stuff keep? And this invention is practically noiseless. Pat: Noiseless is ut? Anything noiseless sounds good to me. comicbooks.com