Life, 1923-10-04 · page 10 of 44
Life — October 4, 1923 — page 10: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains a satirical cartoon and the beginning of "Mrs. Pep's Diary," a serialized feature. **The Cartoon:** depicts an urban scene where street dogs are fighting while an old lady appeals to a man (labeled "Urchin") to stop them. The urchin's response—that he won't intervene until he sees "me dog's goin' ter get licked"—satirizes working-class indifference and the brutal street culture of urban youth. The humor targets both the casual cruelty of children and the chaos of city life. **Mrs. Pep's Diary:** This appears to be a gossipy domestic chronicle documenting servants' complaints, labor disputes, and household management problems. The September entries reference servant defections, anarchistic labor agitation, and disputes over wages—reflecting early 20th-century tensions between employers and workers regarding fair treatment and payment. Together, the page satirizes urban social disorder across class lines.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Old Lad. Urchin: CAN'T YOU DO SOMETHING TO STOP THOSE DOGS FIGHTING? NOT UNTIL I SEE IF ME D0G’S GOIN’ TER GET LICKED. September Up and off to Marge Boothby’s new quarters, 27th into which she did move but yesterday, and found her a-cursing corporations in partic- ular and domestic servants in general, and lamenting that she had not perished in her infancy. For they had not connected the gas and electricity according to their agree- ment, and the cook who had sworn to appear had defected Giving me, wailed Marge, every reason but the true one, which doubtless was that she had found a place more to her liking. When Mistresses Harriot Stanton Blatch and Carrie Chapman Catt were leading the feminine cohorts in their campaign for the franchise, I did hear brave talk about the amelioration in human conditions Lord! You would think the establishment of a contract system for which votes for women would bring about. servants would have been their initial enterprise after getting it, forasmuch as the situation in this connection at present strikes at the very heart of the American home. But no. They must needs go in for sitting on juries and other matters not germane to the affairs of our sex. Albeit Sam twits me about an anarchistic streak, I am all for law and order when there is no chance for a gentlewomen’s agreement. Awake betimes, and had in the foot surgeo: September Fbiace sasap : a, td ‘28th to relieve my toe, and I do think there shoul be a federal statute penalizing boot vendors who deceive their customers as to the size of footgeat A garrulous man he was, using such words as “anom- alous” and “esoteric” in his discourse, and quizzing m about George Moore and Thomas Hardy, which astor ished me, albeit there is no reason why a man of his calling should be poorer in speech or less widely read than the next citizen....At cards all the late afternoor and evening with the Bannings, and Sam did misplay his hands until I was forced to remind him privately that it was impossible for me to defeat three people...Reading : little in Arthur Machen’s “The Three Impostors,” and when I wakened in the night the horror of it was so strong upon me that I fled into Sam’s room, and when he opened his eyes he said, Yes, I know I should have led that Acc of spades, a fact he would never have admitted if in full command of his faculties. Away from home all the day, forasmuch real as the carpenters in Sam's study did make a racket beyond my endurance, and I did com- mand them to take an inch and a half off our dining table (Continued on page 31) comicbooks.com