Life, 1923-10-25 · page 11 of 34
Life — October 25, 1923 — page 11: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains several satirical pieces typical of early 20th-century Life magazine humor: **Top panels (3-4)**: Simple visual gags about a boy looking out a window and a bachelor lamenting lack of modern conveniences like telephones and fireplaces. **"Lament of a Bachelor"**: A poem mocking unmarried men's domestic helplessness, with fears of letters being read by a garbage collector "who can't speak English"—a joke reflecting period anxieties about immigrant workers. **Bottom cartoon**: Depicts what appears to be a morality tale about studying product labels, showing a customer interrogating a grocer about beauty postcards. The humor targets consumer gullibility and suggests grocers were selling promotional beauty postcards alongside food—a common early 1900s retail practice. The overall tone reflects genteel, domestic humor aimed at middle-class readers.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Whe: a Boy Thinks of His Mother W! \ he is hurt. en he is about to go to bed, irst night away from home. Wh he is thirsty at night. Wh he is hungry. Whe. he has good news to tell Whe) he wants money. Wh e attains honors. Whe he hears again omenfolk. Whe» he sees a dog he would like to brit something said home. Whe he would like to leave the baby join the gang. WI he is losing in a family dispute When he thinks he is drowning. Whew his mother is sick. Wh: he has grown to be a man. Fabricated Fables Goose That Laid the Golden Egg . there was a very ordinary lan with a less-than-average ty married to a very ordinary 1 with a shy, receding Fore- All he could earn was $25.00 a lriving a Truck. They had a ho was such a cute-looking lit- low that before he was eight »f age he was earning a Million in the Movies for his parents nd. Moral Screen is mightier than the The Lion and the Mouse Ose a Lion found a Mouse using the end of his Tail as a Slide, and iust as he was about to hand him One, the Mouse said, “Don’t knock me for a Row of Stilton, Mr. Lion, and some day I'll repay you.” Sure enough, one of Ringling’s scouts snared that Lion in the Forest one day, and while he was looking for a Packing Case, along came the Mouse and said, “Let me gnaw the Rope away and set you free.” “Go to it,” said the Lion, but it was Lipstein’s Twin-ply Samoan Hemp and_ the Mouse couldn't gnaw a cent’s worth. Moral Always study the label before you hite. Lament of a Bachelor HY aren't they content to tele- phone? They know I haven't a fireplace And that some time, When all is said and undone, I shall have to spend hours Tearing letters into fine shreds (As they hope my heart is torn) Against the remote possibility Of their being read 3y a garbage collector Who can’t speak English. J. K. M. Customer: HOW MUCH ARE THEM BATHIN’ BEAUTY POSTCARDS, LEM? Village Grocer: DUNNO AS I WANT TO SELL ’EM, ED—I KINDA LIKE TO LOOK AT ’EM OF AN EVENIN’, comicbooks.com