Life — January 4, 1923 — page 7: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# Explanation for Modern Readers This page contains two unrelated pieces of early 20th-century American satire: **"Home Town Questionnaire"** (left column) poses ironic questions about small-town life—asking why citizens tolerate various local inconveniences and hypocrisies (drug stores, prohibition enforcement, surface cars). The humor targets provincial American towns' resistance to progress and self-awareness. **"Gratified Ambitions"** (right column) is a poem about Frank McGhee, a boy whose modest dream was simply to become a taxicab driver—presented as touchingly humble compared to grander childhood aspirations. **The cartoon below** shows a humorous misunderstanding: a woman asks a poorly-dressed man "Are you the electric light?" He replies "No, ma'm, I'm the gas"—a pun on "gas" as both fuel and derogatory slang for an unpleasant person.