Life, 1922-08-17 · page 15 of 36
Life — August 17, 1922 — page 15: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
The page contains a single-panel cartoon depicting a doctor examining a sick boy in bed. The boy explains he ate green apples despite his mother's warnings—and ate them specifically to discover *why* she had forbidden them. The humor relies on a common parental scenario: children's natural curiosity about prohibited things. The joke is the boy's logical but exasperating reasoning: he needed empirical evidence of the danger rather than accepting parental authority. The accompanying dialogue between "Bed No. 1" and "Bed No. 2" (apparently patients debating temperament and book quality) appears unrelated satirical content, likely from a separate feature. The page also includes a poem titled "When You Are Away" by M.C.L., which is romantic verse unrelated to the cartoon.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
a a | Can yw \ Naan , Doctor: Boy: I didn’t eat ’em cos I liked ’em. their emotions, are highly irritable and subject to violent fits of temper. Bepo No. 1 (there is a lull before the storm): you insinuating that I have a violent temper? Bep No. 2: I'm not insinuating anything, dear. I've said from the beginning that the book was just rot. But your eyes are a bit prominent, you know, so you can draw your own conclusions. Bep No. 1 (lull no longer; the storm had broken): Oh, OH, OH. How can you! First y-you insult me about my eyes and then say I have a t-temper. You're just a c-cruel b-boor, Benedict. You u-used to th-think my eyes were beauti—Oh, OH— 3eD No. 2 (soothingly): Of course they’re beauti- ful, sweetheart, and you aren’t controlled by your emo- tions. The book’s crazy and I’ve said so right along. re now, honey—throw it away and go to sleep. Bep No. 1 (sobbing): Sleep. SLEEP! D-do you hink I could go to sleep after what you said to m-m-me? (Curtain descends as Benedict prepares for the storm.) Tad. Are Now you see what comes of eating green apples when your mother told you not to. I ate ’em to find out why she told me not to. When You Are Away SHALL find a small green garden, Far from the crowd on the broad highway, And there I shall wait with my dreams of you Forever or a day. I shall make a little song To sing to myself, alone at night, But only the wind in the listening roses, Will hear the notes aright. And perhaps the wind from my little garden, On puckered lips will whistle my tune, And you, far out on the dusty highway, Hearing, will come for me soon. I shall wait in my green-walled garden, Making small songs of my ribbons of dreams, But only tiny and frightened children Can know what my singing means, MCL comicbooks.com