Life, 1923-10-18 · page 7 of 44
Life — October 18, 1923 — page 7: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This cartoon satirizes early automobile culture, specifically reckless Sunday drivers. The sketch shows a chaotic collision scene with a car striking a tree, debris flying, and a voice from the roadside warning "HEY, TURN OUT! THIS TREE IS TAKEN." The humor targets wealthy leisured classes who drove automobiles recreationally on weekends ("Sunday motorists"), treating country roads as playgrounds while endangering others and property. The caption's sardonic tone—as if trees must be claimed like parking spots—mocks drivers' careless attitude toward both infrastructure and public safety. This reflects 1910s-era anxieties about automobiles as dangerous novelties operated by inexperienced, overconfident drivers more interested in speed and thrills than safety.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
For Young Dramatists L ’S Dramatic Workhouse sub- pits the students of its course for ywrights to their annual ex- aminetion. The bright young man, or young lady, who forwards the best ansv:rs—and by best we mean least wor-'—will be awarded a season pass to American Wheel. Your hero is a rising young Dis ct Attorney. On the eve of the mos: important trial of his career, ie. os the curt falls on thg second act, 1e discovers that the defendant in th murder case is his own wife. He |so finds, with horrified amaze- ment. that his father is the judge, his :other is the forewoman of the jury. his brother is the chief witness for the prosecution, and his best frievd—who, incidentally, remembers that time when the rising young, etc.. forg t himself and his early religious trainng—is counsel for the defense. Hoy does the hero manage to get his passport in time to sail for Europe the sext morning? 2. Your first act is situated in a bedroom, under the auspices of Al Woods. There are two beds. Re- cou five methods of having your heroine appear in five different ar- ranecments of lingerie, and give a plavsible reason for having a differ- ent man under each of the beds on her appearances. 3. Explain the comedy uses of (a) a nonocle; (b) a mustache; (c) a foreigner; (d) suspenders; (e¢) gar- ters. (f) ladies’ hose. +. Construct suitable stage business to sccompany a speech by your her: ‘ne—a lady of society—the speech be “Tam tired, tired of the empty life [ am forced to lead.” (Note. — wy yi Ws u Nancy (on her first nutting expedition) : AND WHICH ARE THE TREES THAT HAVE NUTS WITH THE SALT ON THEM? There is a couch, left center, facing the footlights, onto which any one so inclined may sink, if she happens to be a graceful sinker.) 5. What properties, besides a cock- tail shaker, would you need for a modern tea party? James K. McGuinness. THOSE SUNDAY MOTORISTS Voice from the Roadside: HEY, TURN OUT! THIS TREE IS TAKEN. Free with Every Treatment ITH mud she daubs her rosy cheek Likewise her dimpled chin, And thus indomitably seeks Eternal youth to win. Wherefore the heart of old or young With undimmed ardor burns, As woman, who from sprung, At last to clay returns. The Poet and the Publisher there was a poor Poet, a very poor Poet, whose vers were published in the local paper so often that people thought he must have a pull with the editor. How- ever, he was so proud of his effusions that he made an arrangement with a Publisher to bring them out in book- form under the title of “Parnassian Flights,” and by the time the volume appeared the Poet was out $1,500. Moral Some poets are shorn, not paid. clay first comicbooks.com