Life, 1923-12-27 · page 9 of 37
Life — December 27, 1923 — page 9: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a humorous illustrated essay celebrating the cow's utility. The page uses small cartoon panels to catalog everything derived from cattle: milk, cheese, butter, meat, bones, horns, hide, and tail—even cow dung for fuel ("sunky kick made from cow peet"). The satire appears gentle rather than biting. It mocks the cow as "dumb" while ironically praising its complete usefulness to humans. Panel captions like "Oocile-like and when" and "It's sort of dumb and" emphasize bovine stupidity, yet the overwhelming inventory of products suggests the cow's indispensability despite—or because of—its perceived dimwittedness. The style and vernacular ("peet," "moo!") suggest early-to-mid 20th century American humor, celebrating agricultural abundance through affectionate mockery.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Our Good Dumb Friend the Cow * LIFE, - critter and its feet are split in half. cow from above It’s sort of dumb and 6o the cows calm eyes docile-like and when They come both girls chaplin and fellers and they ‘order of roast beef both are 800d to eat; the girl kind’s much Gal big piece of cheese! more useful — they cheese factory at tillamook oregon. give milk as well bucket of milk) as meat. The cow’s S3= cow Starting chicago fire| Altogether. cows are cow's tongue curious, with 3 most ground plan of a whole Stein cow looking east the bones are used cross section of cow bone for mah jongg tiles, se section mah jongg fends dome the feet are used S| Pot of ive bewildering map — for glues. The horns 1 1b. of butter milking apparatus fret see text (a pink melon spiked pan of rich milk with pegs) is attached Pitcher of a along the keel and just athwart the after legs. insert talcum nere daesey wear two make lovely horns, for handles for ‘4 Z Temains of 2 guy who instance, bloodthirsty like a knives and radiator cap. gr josh method of preserving horns milkmaid pegging away The tail is used Pral jok’s tail soup for soup and the wd be sunday kicks made from cow peel upholstery or shoes, froot tip Vv | close-up of } a_cow hair swords. The meat is used truck load of cow meat} to ballast hash. The order of hash, lwith accessories moos make honks for comicbooks.com