Life, 1923-10-25 · page 25 of 34
Life — October 25, 1923 — page 25: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains three satirical pieces typical of early 20th-century American humor: **"A Moral Man"** mocks excessive Victorian prudishness through Andrew King, a man so obsessed with propriety that he euphemizes body parts ("limb" for leg, "member" for arm) and avoids anything suggesting nudity. The joke culminates when he dies from shock upon seeing gloves labeled "Undressed kid"—he cannot even handle the word "undressed." The satire targets rigid moral hypocrisy and social pretension. **"Furs for Fur's Sake"** humorously traces fur fashion history, joking that modern women want both fur coats *and* husbands—an impossible demand since obtaining furs requires husbands to work late into the night. This reflects 1920s anxieties about changing women's expectations and consumer desires. **"Notes Here and There"** contains brief, unrelated witticisms about stubbornness, French dining, talking dolls, and alcohol—typical magazine filler humor. The cartoons—a truck scene and a cat illustration—provide visual comedy supporting the text's themes of social awkwardness and modern life's absurdities.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
SANT x) AIRING A Moral Man MORAL man was Andrew King, As pure as you could find; would not let the slightest thing ‘ontaminate his mind. dinner when you asked for “breast,” lease stop it!” he would beg. chairs and tables all were dressed vith trousers on each leg. it vulgar folk might call an “arm,” “‘member” was to him. ¢” would fill him with alarm; spoke of it as “limb.” ilad he was always shocked thout some dressing there; lways kept his cupboard stocked— blushed to see it bare. spectacles had lenses blue; said, “I'd almost die er I should have to view ings with a naked eye.” vatch folks swimming in the sea vuld fill his soul with wrath; hurt his sense of modesty » see them take a bath. 4 O.Fae>7, “WELL, I GUESS I KNOW HOW TO MAKE ONE Now.” Once in a store ne chanced to see Some gloves marked, “Undressed kid.” “This shock will kill me, sure!” said he. And sure enough, it did. Newman Levy. NORWEGIANS lure sardines by electric lights. Our movie theatres use the same system. Furs for Fur’s Sake 'HE habit of wearing furs had a praiseworthy beginning some hun- dred thousand years ago when the climate and janitors were even more unreliable than they are now. In those days, it was fairly easy to ob- tain a fur coat. You simply rolled a boulder off a cliff and went down to see what kind of luck you had had, In fact, fur coats were so common that many people grew their own. Of course, in time this went out of fashion, and husbands then banded to- gether and formed the Hudson's Ba Company to appease clamoring wives. All went well for a while, until the selfish animals remaining decided they preferred to retain their own coats. Whereupon a great dye industry sprang up and husbands began to stay out late at night. The problem of the modern woman became one of how to have a fur coat and a husband at the same time. The problem is not yet solved. Notes Here and There ILL-POWER and _ stubbornness are precisely one and the ne thing. Which term to apply is merely a question of whether we refer to our- selves or to some one else. As a frequenter of French table d'hotes, we note that what may be one man’s meat may be another man’s poisson. Can we properly call the new talk- ing dolls “figures of speech”? From our modern Bartlett: “Still waters run deep, but transportable HOW IT FEELS WHEN YOU SIT ON A CAT liquor runs quicker.” comicbooks.com