Life, 1923-12-20 · page 6 of 36
Life — December 20, 1923 — page 6: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains three separate humorous pieces satirizing middle-class social conventions and family dynamics: **"The Bootlegger's Daughter"** (top): A father instructs his young daughter on protecting valuable jewelry, using language about "taking it straight down to the Safe Deposit Company"—satirizing how bootleggers (illegal alcohol dealers during Prohibition) had become wealthy enough to have families concerned with banking and valuables. **"To the Manner Born"**: Mocks inherited pretension—a banker's mother instructs her daughter to guard possessions with "a little toy sword," suggesting old-money families teach children to value and protect their inherited status and goods. **"Full Measure"** and the remaining pieces joke about workplace dynamics and parental expectations regarding wages and Christmas gifts—universal domestic humor requiring no specific historical context.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
BA s The Bootlegger’s Daughter: BEEN TO CHURCH, HAVE YOU, FATHER? To the Manner Born ‘B eful, precious,” said the fond mother to her three- year-old daughter. “Remember that is Mama's best diamond pendant, and that you're to take it straight down to the Safe Deposit Company. And just a moment, darling! Here is Mama’s new pearl necklace. Take that, too. And be sure to hold them both tight in your little paddie, and to hit any one who tries to take them from you with this little toy sword of your brother's.” It was but the influence of heredity asserting itself. She,came, that mother, of an old family of bankers, shrewd men of business who entrusted payroll cash and negotiable securities to un- armed office boys and rheumatic watch- men. A. H. F. Full Measure UDGE BROWN: Well, Ephraim, what are you preaching to your flock these day ing a mighty stir. Epuraim: Well, sur, yassar I is, I gives it to ’um dis way: Fustly, I tells ’um what I'm gwine tell ’um, den I tells ’um what I said I wuz gwine tell ’um, and den I tells ’um what I done tole ‘um. I hear you are mak- 4. WELL, WHAT DID THE RIGHT REVE Hh aevéy LO E HAVE TO SAY? A MAN paid all his bills once upon a time, and he was greatly surprised to find how few for a whole month. people wrote to him Kid: SANTA CLAUS NEEDN'T PERTEND HE DIDN’T GIT ME “DA, what is the maximum wage?” “Unsatisfactory, my son.” ME OWN EYES. LETTER THIS YEAR WHEN I SEES IT GIT TOOK AWAY WID comicbooks.com