Life, 1923-08-16 · page 34 of 36
Life — August 16, 1923 — page 34: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page presents a humorous column introducing an anecdote about two British soldiers ("Tommies") at a racetrack who bet on whether a nearby man is the Archbishop of Canterbury—an absurd scenario that plays on the unexpected juxtaposition of a high church official in a gambling venue. The column then pivots to invite readers to find a "sure thing" puzzle hidden elsewhere on the page, promising a prize. This refers to the subscription offer visible below: if readers send a dollar (or more for foreign/Canadian rates), Life will send them ten weeks of the magazine—framed as a "bet" or "sure thing" rather than a straightforward transaction. The satire gently mocks both the credulous reader willing to gamble on subscriptions and the magazine's own marketing tactics. The cartoon illustrations (showing figures in period dress) support the lighthearted, comedic tone. This appears designed to boost subscriptions through playful reader engagement.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
SPEAKING OF SURE THINGS— OU remember the joke of the two British Tommies— stop us if you’ve heard it-—-who were at the race-track and one (either Alf or Bert, his name was) thought he saw the Archbishop of Canterbury standing near the grandstand. Well, of course that was a funny place to see an Archbishop, and the other Tommy—Bert, or Alf perhaps—bet his friend, as Tommies will, a fiver that it was not the divine in question, if indeed a divine may be in question. So he asked the man if he was the Archbishop, and the man _ said—— But speaking of sure things, as we were in the headline, there is another one on the page somewhere. Instead of a fiver, though, it has to do only with a dollar, and does not appear to be any joke, either. What bright little girl or boy can discover it, and win a prize? Dear LIFE: s Ibet that ifI \ send you the en» \ closed dollar (Cana- dian, $1.20; Foreign, N || $1.40) you will send me ~ LIFE for ro weeks. If I am right, address the copies to H LIFE, 598 Madison Avenue, New York H| One Year, $5.00 (Canadian, $5.80; Foreign, $6.60) ‘New York City-Bethl comicbooks.com