Life, 1923-03-29 · page 11 of 40
Life — March 29, 1923 — page 11: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains a satirical illustration and accompanying text mocking a Puritan's moral hypocrisy regarding smoking. The illustration shows an elegant social gathering—likely a fancy ball or party—with well-dressed attendees in formal attire. The caption presents dialogue between a woman and man: she'd "rather dance than eat," he responds "I think I eat best." The accompanying article describes a Puritan who struggled with smoking's pleasures, eventually deciding the habit was sinful. Unable to quit smoking outright, he found a compromise: chewing tobacco instead, reasoning that anything adding to life's enjoyment must be wrong. The satire targets rigid Puritanical morality—the absurdity of someone convinced that pleasure itself is sinful, leading to self-deluding "solutions" that preserve the vice while changing its form.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
She: I'd rather dance than eat, wouldn’t you? O NCE there was a Puritan whose conscience was as rigid as a steel beam. 3 lt chanced that he had contracted the habit of smoking, and upon re- flection he decided that it must be a vice, since indulgence in it gave him pleasure. So he resolved to end the Practice, and he did. But cessation of smoking resulted He: Well, I think I eat best. The Puritanical Solution in his becoming healthier. So he enjoyed greater happiness, through not smoking, than he had ever known through smoking. Pondering over this, he decided that he had been wrong to give up smoking, because he had gained hap- piness by ending the practice. He was certain that anything that added to his enjoyment of life was wrong. However, he could not go back to smoking, because, even though his happiness might be less, he would still know some; and he could not reconcile with his conscience a prac- tice which gave him some pleasure. In the end, he solved his problem by chewing tobacco, because he be- came frightfully ill every time he did it. J. K.M. comicbooks.com