Life, 1923-04-12 · page 38 of 40
Life — April 12, 1923 — page 38: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This poem satirizes Prohibition-era hypocrisy and the gap between high society's pretensions and ordinary Americans' actual behavior. Written during or shortly after Prohibition (1920-1933), it celebrates the "lowbrow"—the working-class citizen who drinks illegal alcohol, gambles, curses, and ignores intellectual pursuits like Ibsen's plays. The satire cuts two ways: it mocks the pretentiousness of highbrow culture while also ironically praising rule-breaking and vice as authentically American. The final stanza's claim that "roughnecks won the war" (likely WWI) suggests ordinary people deserve respect despite lacking refined tastes. The accompanying cartoon shows a doctor examining a patient who hears "locomotive whistles" in his chest—a visual joke playing on misdiagnosis and urban noise. Both pieces reflect Life magazine's satirical stance toward American class divisions and cultural standards of the 1920s.
📄 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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I hymn the honest citizen Who brews illicit beer, Who hits ‘er up, and later Sheds no repentant tear, Who pokers some on Sunday, Who damns a crowded bus, Who doesn’t know who Ibsen was And doesn’t give a cuss! I love the giddy roughneck Who always needs a shave, Who doesn’t know he ranks a harp And has a soul to save! The mad and blithesome bounder Who chews and smokes and swears— Who always has a jolly time Because he really dares! And so, hurray for whisky! For brandy, beer and gin! For every gallant breach of law And every honest .sin! Hurray for every citizen Who dares to ramp and roar, For lowbrows choose our presidents, And roughnecks won the war! Like Books Received The Girl Next Door, by Lee Wilson Dodd (Dutton). Bethlehem Long Ago and To-day, by Ray- mond Walters (Carey Printing Co.). Human Australasia, by Charles Franklin Thwing (Macmillan). Andy Ardlon, in a series of Scandalous Fun Frolics (Four Seas Press, Boston). Parodies on Walt. Whitman, by Henry S. 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