Life, 1923-10-11 · page 23 of 36
Life — October 11, 1923 — page 23: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a comic strip titled "Skippy—No. 27" depicting street children sharing tricks for evading police. The humor relies on early 20th-century urban childhood mischief: kids boasting about techniques to escape cops chasing them—running, then deliberately tripping the pursuing officer by positioning themselves low so he tumbles over them ("head over teakettle"). The strip captures a specific social context: poor urban children routinely playing pranks on authority figures, with police pursuit being a common childhood "game." The final panel shows Skippy inviting a friend to watch "fireworks," likely meaning mischievous displays or street celebrations. The satire gently mocks both the children's casual attitude toward authority and the era's common sight of cops chasing street urchins through neighborhoods. It reflects a time when such interactions were normalized entertainment rather than serious criminality.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
yi DO YA KNOW WHAT YA WANTA D> Friend: ow! 1 KNOW SOMETHIN’ BETTER ’N if § COP CHASES YA? RUN LIKE SIXTY 'N’ THAT! YOU GET DOWN ON YER HANDS ‘N WioN HE GETS RIGHT ON TOP OF YA, DROP KNEES RIGHT IN BACK OF A COP ’N’ I'LL ROLLIN’ BUTTER TUBS. JUST GET BE- < ON YA HANDS ’N’ KNEES ’N’ HE’LL GO COME UP ’N’ GIVE HIM A SHOVE. IT ALWAYS HIND HIM ’N’ I'LL DO ALL THE REST. HEAD OVER TEAKETTLE, GETS A LAUGH OUTA ME. Skippy: ASK YER MOTHER IF YA CAN COME OUT BY ME A LITTLE WHILE. I WANTA SHOW YA SOME FIREWORKS! Skippy—No. 27 comicbooks.com