Life, 1923-04-26 · page 9 of 36
Life — April 26, 1923 — page 9: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains a humorous diary entry by "Mrs. Peps" documenting April social activities. The cartoon illustrates an April 30th incident at 11:59 P.M. labeled "Sprinting for the Last Oyster"—showing a woman diving dramatically toward food at what appears to be a dinner party, with a man reacting in shock. The joke relies on the era's social conventions: oysters were considered a seasonal delicacy with strict eating seasons (traditionally "months with R"). The cartoon satirizes how seriously wealthy people took these food traditions, and depicts a supposedly refined woman abandoning decorum in an undignified scramble to eat before the seasonal deadline passed. The diary entries mock upper-class social pretensions and domestic complaints throughout.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Awake betimes, with ‘a great dread of something unpleasant to be faced, and upon consulting my book found that we were to dine with the Hal- Whereupon, with no reflection soever, I did take up the telephone and lie us out of it. And when my conscience began upon me a few minutes later, I could at least be com- iorted by the assurance that we did not have to go. Nor shall I accept y more invitations greatly in ad- e, being weary of a social sys- tem which forces me to decide on the twentieth of April if I want to listen to chamber music on the six- teenth of May. And as for the Hal- Lord! dining with them is about like dining in a first-class joarding-house, both as to provender and table companions. A good thing, too, as it turned out, that I displayed the courage of my convictions, for Sam brought home at tea-time H. Clintock of Chicago, who was all for doing the town properly, so we made up a gay party and went the rounds like happy children, not getting to our beds until long after dawn. April 20th seys. seys, April 21st Sam off early, with great complaints about his head, but a man who drinks considerable champagne of an evening must expect to need a bro- mide or two on the morrow... . keading all this day in Stendhal’s hook on love, even though somewhat abashed by the statement in the pref- ce that probably not more than a hundred persons would understand it. more drastic announcement by Einstein as to the comprehensibility of his theory was enough to discour- age me at once, but I am more inter- ested in love than in relativity. And o, God knows, is everybody, and ere I ever to write a book, I should rite it about love, on the husiness principle that a merchant vill be most successful with a com- modity which all the world hath need of... .Sam home early in a dreadful ate, asserting that he had heard lands of music behind him all day id strange voices calling from afar. Whereupon I mixed him a_ stout ocktayle, and after he had consumed vo of them he said that he not only felt he could live until morning, but that he actually wanted to do so. Time: April Reading in the public 22nd prints how the plan to (Lord's Day) have female taxicab chauffeurs goes on apace, which I am glad of, for methinks they will be more cautious than men, and have greater regard for the psychology of their passenger. Although the chauf- feurs of our city may deposit you at your door intact, it does not seem during the trip that the outcome is to be so happy. I have lately adopted the habit, when I summon a cab, of confiding to the driver that I have severe heart trouble and must be driven with the greatest caution if he do not want to be compelled to take me to the morgue instead of the address I mention when engaging him. Baird Leonard. 11:59 P. M., April 30—Sprinting for the Last Oyster Spring in New England HRILLING with wonder she come: April, gay-footed and swift; Bargaining petals for plums, Where the pink-pearl drift ; Softly the maple sap thrums, Shyly the wind-flowers lift. blossoms Chant, Irresistible One! Winter repulsed you in vain. Noontide—a dazzle of sun; Twilight—a soft lilac rain; Swiftly your white stars aflung, Like smiles still a-quiver with pain. M. A. D. Tracuer: What is a geyser? Pupit: A waterfall going up. comicbooks.com