Life, 1923-09-20 · page 9 of 36
Life — September 20, 1923 — page 9: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains three distinct pieces of social commentary: 1. **"The Hedging Bard"** (left column): A poem by A.C.M. Asay, Jr. mocking versifiers who write about Christmas and summer topics. It satirizes the impracticality of forcing seasonal poetry when weather doesn't cooperate. 2. **"Fables for Farmers"** (top right): A brief anecdote featuring "Judge Gary" and "Pinkworthy," discussing agricultural problems—high wages, freight rates, and prices. The satire suggests that foreign immigrants are blamed for farm troubles, though the real issue is systemic. 3. **"Food for Thought"** (bottom): A cartoon depicting men at a bar. The caption records a domestic dispute: one man complains everything disagrees with him and gets no sympathy, then reveals his wife disagreed with him years ago. This is dark humor about marital discord and male grievance.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
LIFE The Hedging Bard [ SHOULD hate to be a person who would try to make a verse on fhe Merry Christmas season, and sell it then for gold; for although it’s very jolly to sing hey! and ho! for holly, It’s beyond all sorts of reason when the weather isn’t cold. you'll find that every paper thinks it quite the proper caper fo prepare its Christmas number long before the leaves are sere; hich simply means that versifiers get but little mercy, Who let winter spoil their slumbers, while the doggy days are here r with golf and also tennis the desire of us men is Yo do anything but worr: n iota or a jot. I'd hate to be a person trying hard to make a verse on The Yuletide in September—and that is why I'm not. never, I'd be silly just to argue, willy-nilly, Chat winter stuff in summer is about the worst of all; r inditing frigid verses seems to cool off summer's curses— And the money they may bring one in might make a pleasant fall! Fables for Farmers S$ they've found out again what's the matter with us farmers,” announced the hop grower from Sco- harie to the regular Saturday afternoon gathering at the local store. “Judge Gary, him that runs ’most all the coun- try’s steel business, ’s been telling how agriculture is de- pressed aecount of high wages for farm workers, high freight rates, and high prices for eve got to buy. Says the whole trouble is we haven't got enough people in the country, and if we'll take the limit off them foreigners that wants to come here, wages will go down, and mebbe freight rates and prices, to “Mighty nice of Judge Gary,” interjected Dairyman Pinkworth, “and I guess he could use a whole lot of them immigrants in his steel mills, but we don’t want ‘em for farm workers. We've found that some kinds of foreigners is like weeds; you can transplant ’em and cultivate ‘em and fertilize ‘em, but th We've got enough weeds on Uncle Sam’s farm to keep us right busy for a spell, without bringing in more of them.” W. G. A LARGE number of German vaudeville performers have been booked for the United States. The tion is to make their marks on the American stage. y blame thing we y stay weeds. r ambi- *FICIENCY PERT (to Central): Would you mind if I gave you the number all five times at once? FOOD FOR THOUGHT “EVERYTHING I LIKE DISAGREES WITH ME, AND I GET NO SYMPATHY FROM ANY ONE,” “HOW ABOUT YOUR WIFE?” “OH, SHE DISAGREED WITH ME YEARS AGO.” comicbooks.com