Life, 1923-08-16 · page 13 of 36
Life — August 16, 1923 — page 13: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a humorous narrative comic strip depicting a man's misadventure during an unreasonable snowstorm. The sequence shows: 1. A snow storm forces him to retrieve his daughter and child 2. A sheriff evicts him from his home 3. He moves furniture in terrible weather 4. He struggles through the storm carrying belongings 5. He encounters exposure and hardship 6. He finds his son in the city 7. He battles "the grim reaper" (personified Death) through exposure 8. He finally reaches bed, exhausted The caption's punchline—"But He Has a Cinch Compared with the Movie Farmer"—suggests this is satirizing Depression-era hardship narratives, particularly those romanticized in farm-life films. The joke implies that real urban struggles during harsh winters rival or exceed the stereotypical farmer's hardships depicted in cinema, undercutting popular nostalgic narratives about rural life.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
ASONABLE SNOW STORM SHERIFF'S MEN START TAKING BUT LITTLE EFFIE HAS S BACK DAUGHTER AND HER FURNITURE OUT OF THE OLD HOME, TOUCHED HEART OF THE LITTLE CHILD, EFFIE, : OLD MISER, WHO TEARS UP MORTGAGE. CHEERFULLY CARRIES ALL THE FURNI- JUST AS HE SITS DOWN PLU “GES INTO SUCH A STORM TURE BACK INTO HOUSE. TO SUPPER HEARS PITIFUL AS FEW MEN CAN REMEMBER, CRY FROM OUT OF THE NIGHT. AND IN IT FINDS HIS SON, WHO WEAKENED BY EXPOSURE BATTLES WITH THEN GOES TO BED HAS REPENTED AND MADE HIS FOR- THE GRIM REAPER FOR AN HOUR OR MORE. SO AS TO BE READY TUNE IN THE CITY. FOR HARD DAY TO- MORROW. But He Has a Cinch Compared with the Movie Farmer comicbooks.com