Life, 1922-09-28 · page 34 of 36
Life — September 28, 1922 — page 34: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This satirical article mocks post-WWI German hyperinflation and American assimilation anxieties. The narrator purchases a German dog named "Katzenellenbogen" cheaply (25,000 marks) but incurs astronomical costs in transportation and care that total "a round million marks"—illustrating how German currency became worthless. The humor escalates when the dog refuses to adopt American ways despite the owner's desperate efforts: learning German, playing Wagner, joining German-American clubs, and abandoning his American Legion membership. The dog's ultimate "sin" is fraternizing with a low-class dachshund. The punchline—"I expect the wurst"—is a dark pun playing on both the German sausage and the dog's fate, suggesting the narrator will give up and return the unassimilable immigrant to Chicago. This reflects 1920s American nativism: anxiety about foreign immigration and the belief that some "alien" elements resist American integration, no matter the investment.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
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