Life, 1923-12-20 · page 25 of 36
Life — December 20, 1923 — page 25: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This satirical piece by Corey Ford mocks overly elaborate Christmas traditions and annoying relatives. The author humorously proposes replacing simple mistletoe kisses with decorated flowers that trigger increasingly violent "traditions"—punching relatives in the eye, knocking them down, throwing them through windows into snowdrifts, and even strangling Cousin Wilbur with crepe paper. The cartoon shows a street mugging: a thief steals a fur collar from someone's overcoat, joking that it's "nifty-lookin'." This illustrates the era's common street crime and class anxiety—thieves targeting luxury items from the urban working/middle class. The piece satirizes both holiday excess and family dysfunction, while the cartoon reflects period concerns about urban theft and poverty. Both mock contemporary American society's materialism and social tensions.
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Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Improving on the Mistletoe I \M thinking of doing something with the idea of mistletoe. \Vhoever thought of mistletoe had a workable suggestion, but he didn’t carry it far enough. There are numberless possibilities in the idea of being caught under the mistletoe and having something happen to you. It is too bad to let ve whole thing dwindle’ away, so that all that happens to is a kiss. r example, I am getting up a flower now that means st in the eye. am working on another flower that carries the whole ic of knocking somebody down and stepping on him. \nother flower which I have almost completed has big petals, and gives anybody that can be enticed under it privilege of being seized by the seat of the trousers and led through the window into a snowdrift. \nd when all the relatives who have Christmas dinner h Nellie and me get up from the table this coming ctide and wander into the living-room, they are going 0 take their places under the different flowers, and all I | have to do will be to carry out the particular tradi- which I shall associate with each flower. | am hoping, for example, that Cousin Wilbur will pause light his cigar under the charming crépe paper begonia, uich means a slow death by strangling. Cousin Wilbur “WHAT'S THE BIG IDEA, TAKIN’ THE FUR COLLAR OFFA | I have been carrying out the idea of Christmas each YOUR OVERCOAT?” ison for the past ten years by exchanging neckties; that “SOME GUY COMES ALONG AN’ s A NIETY-LOOKIN’ I send Wilbur a new necktie and Wilbur gives me back FUR COAT AN’ HE PINCHES 1T—SEE!” one I sent him last year. And I have abominable taste. BE —Cerstes (. Gang And if everything goes right, my sister-in-law will into the big morris-chair directly under the tinsel nastur- tium I shall hang there, and I shall be privileged to push her backwards into the fireplace, with screaming effect. It is her way to entertain us by reading all the clever little letters that Junior has got up to send to Santa Claus, and passing them around so we can see the funny spelling. Another for whom I am saving a particularly violent decoration is Cousin Frances, whose teeth should straighten out nicely by the time she is twenty-three. She gives the whole day after Christmas to research work, looking up the penciled price-marks on the bottoms of boudoir vases, so she can strike a profit and loss balance for the season. But the great red poinsettia that Nellie and I have been working on for a month will be placed over the sofa where Aunt Clara always sits. Aunt Clara dreads the holidays so; Christmas is such a sad, sad time for her, she says, with all the vacant chairs and the faces that are missing from the festal board. I e decided on ground glass in her demi-tasse. The more I think it over, the more enthusiastic I get over the idea of mistletoe. If it is really carried out, it seems to give a new meaning to the holiday season. Corey Ford. RANKLIN'’S picture will appear on the new one-hun- . dred-dollar bill. Take care of the hundred-dollar bills THE DARKEST CLOUD MAY HAVE A SILVER LINING, and the thousand-dollar bills will take care of themselves. comicbooks.com