Life, 1923-05-24 · page 19 of 42
Life — May 24, 1923 — page 19: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page satirizes hackwork writing, doom-mongering predictions, and advertising culture circa early 1920s. **"Hack Work"** mocks formulaic commercial writing—a poet admits to churning out sentimental verse (starry-eyed tots, forget-me-nots, steak) purely for meager payment (two cents per word), despising the work but needing money for food. **"The End of It"** is a brief Scottish dialect joke about logical argumentation leading nowhere—a cemetery full of people who followed logic to its conclusion. **"Checking Up on the Prophets"** is the page's main satire. It mocks apocalyptic predictions that circulated ten years prior (around 1913). The author (Robert C. Benchley, a famous humorist) catalogs absurd 1913 predictions for 1923: home/family destroyed by divorce and suffrage, industry collapsed by eight-hour workdays, the Mississippi flooding the Midwest, coal/oil exhaustion, and generational physical degeneration. The joke: **none of this happened**, exposing prophets of doom as perennially wrong. The scrambled advertising slogans cartoon plays with recognizable corporate claims rendered meaningless.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Hack Work BBITY bibbity—two cents a word, Four cents for postage to send it. Sibbity sab—which is really absurd, But hunger forbids me to end it. So, ibbity bibbity sibbity sab! That buys a sandwich and tea. While I’m about it I might as well nab Something more ‘filling for me. Put down the names of things, one, two, three: Starry-eyed, innocent tots, Add the wild waves on a turbulent sea, A sprig of forget-me-nots. Succulent steak and the bouquet of wine. This is to be the penultimate line. Some day, six months from now, maybe I dine! D. H. The End of It WO dour Scotch elders were engaged in a heated argument concerning a knotty point of doc- trine while on their way to church one Sunday morning. As they were nearing the church MacTavish broke into a long harangue of Mac- Donald’s, with: “Mon, mon, if you'd only follow your arguments to their logical conclusion. . .” “Mon, alive,” retorted MacDon- ald, “do you no ken yon cemetery’s filled wi’ logical conclusions ?” ‘Just say Hire’s’” Lady (after the large man has made his way to his seat): There! I hope there’s no more of him! Checking Up on the Prophets JERY Thursday some one comes out and says that if America keeps on doing something or other at the rate it is doing it now there will be a smash-up with- in ten years. Sometimes it is Eu- rope that will collapse. Sometimes it is the whole world. This has been going on for at least ten years now, so let us look back and see what was predicted then for 1923. Ac- “ The car that made goodina aay” If the Advertising Slogans Were Scrambled cording to the exclusive informa- tion abroad at that time, our coun- try is to-day in the following con- dition. The home has vanished as an institution, owing to the prevalence of divorce. In some of the prairie districts there are a few men and women living together as man and wife, but aside from that there is nothing but chaos and free love. The race has died out, owing to the decreasing birth-rate among the upper classes. Industry is at a standstill as a result of the introduction of the eight-hour day. American manufacturing, dealt a death-blow by the Underwood tar- iff, is extinct. The Mississippi River has over- flowed its banks and the entire Middle West is under water. The home is shattered, family- life ruined and the Government collapsing, thanks to the establish- ment of Women’s Suffrage. Our supply of coal ran out a year ago and we haven't had any oil for two years. My young son is bow-legged, owing to his having walked too soon. Robert C. Benchley. To have peace of mind settle among your enemies; you know what to expect of them. comicbooks.com