Life, 1922-10-19 · page 10 of 36
Life — October 19, 1922 — page 10: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This illustration depicts three baseball players in different eras of uniforms, satirizing the magazine's article "Fools for the Finding" below it. The cartoon contrasts old and new baseball fashion/style. The left figure wears vintage uniform and holds a baseball; the center figure is a woman in contemporary dress (likely representing modern fashion influence); the right figure sports a newer-style uniform. The accompanying text discusses a character named Norton, apparently a would-be poet who joined a poetry society. The narrator critiques Norton's pretentious writing and lack of self-awareness, ultimately ridiculing his amateur poetry submission to a society competition. The "old vs. new" theme connects fashion/style changes to Norton's shift from unaware fool to would-be artist—satirizing both changing trends and amateur artistic pretension in early 20th-century American life.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
“* TUST what, Norton,” I asked, “is the idea?” Whereupon Norton assumed the expression of a be- wildered fox-terrier set unsteadily on end and murmured he didn’t know. “Do you really think this—this ef- fort is coherent? Do you really think any editor—?” Norton wriggled uneasily and I continued. I tore his sentences apart, ridiculed his choice of words, Off With the Old—On With the New Fools for the Finding explained the futility of writing without plan and demolished his la- borious construction. “Well,” I ended acidly, “in this sad world one can always find bigger fools than oneself.” Norton blushed, thanked me, and departed, more, I thought, in sorrow than in anger. It was his own fault. When Norton told me he had joined a poetry society, I asked him why he didn’t bob his hair, smoke Russian cigarettes and leave off wear- ing—but I blush for all of us. He mumbled something about el expression” and slunk off. “Foo! !’ I hurled after him, You see, I really liked the fellow. The next time I saw Norton, he had written a poem. His society was offering a prize and would I be kind enough— Curiosity prompted me to read Norton’s poem. It was twelve de- comicbooks.com