Life, 1924-01-17 · page 7 of 36
Life — January 17, 1924 — page 7: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains three satirical pieces about economic hardship, likely from the post-WWI period. **"So Goes the Dollar"** by Albert Cook satirizes inflation through absurdist humor—a cup of coffee costing $25,000, eventually requiring million-dollar meals. It mocks currency depreciation and the impossibility of budgeting. **The main cartoon** depicts a street encounter with the caption "Crime Wave, Lady! Bless yer heart, no! It's nothin' but an epidemic—like smallpox er cholera er somethin'." This appears to reference actual crime waves (possibly during Prohibition), presenting crime as a widespread social disease rather than isolated criminal acts. **"This Is National Safety Day"** proposes tongue-in-cheek solutions for January 16th safety observance—including temporary jails to control dangerous elements (reckless drivers, "quack doctors," football fans, etc.), satirizing society's inability to maintain order.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
So Goes the Dollar IVE years after the Next Great War Iw had a cup of coffee at $25,000 a cup. w, $25,000 for a cup of coffee is into a restaurant and high price when you consider that yes- terday it was only $20,000. However, the waiter informed me that currency was depreciating so that at the next meal coffee would be $30,000, I had a complete American meal, of course—Irish stew, Hur An gor . French-fried, etc. By the time I had finished cating the cost was $1,000,000. One million dollars isn’t dear for a meal—in fact, it's very reasonable Generally my dinners come to $2,000,- 000, but I can afford it now that 1 make $100,000,000 a week. I'm g the boss for a 000,000 raise and if I don't get it I'l have to take a coupk of billion dollars out of the bank to pay some bills. Last week I bought a suit of clothes for $200,000,000. 1 really need 000,000 a week to live on! Albert Cook. This Is National Safety Day NUARY 16 has been designated National Safety Day, and while every one is anxious to enter into the spirit of the thing and observe the occasion with fitting ceremonies, no body seems to know just how to go about it Celebration of any kind is a risky business, and it is therefore a problem safer on 1 Safety Da let_us say, New Year's Eve. Before we can support National Safety Day in an adequate manner, we must make sure that it will be safe to do so. It is our suggestion, then, that the government build a few emergency jails and, on January 16, fill them with the following individu: Taxi- and truck-drivers, Italian boot- nd groups: leggers, oil-stock salesmen, practical “jokers,” huntsmen, automobilists who boast that “the old bus, can do sixty five any day and I can prove it,” hold up men, Jack Dempsey, manufacturers of delicatessen products, quack doctors men who make their own gin, members of the Yale and Cornell foothall teams traffic cops, militant feminists, and walking delegates Of course, the proposed jails we have to be immoderately large, but they “CRIME WAVE, LADY! BLESS YER HEART LIKE SMALLPOX ER CH( need be only temporary structures January soners would bx released as get back to normal. Safety Day may be all right for twenty-four he we mustn't 30 AL Mt Breakfast 3 overdo it. The people of this country bride to 10:00 4. 4. Lunch 10:15 to 1 Highballs from 11 Matince 2:15 to 5p Dine 5:15 to 6:30. Dance 6:45 to 9:30. can't get along wit t thrills. Robert E. Sherwood. eee eect "THOse mid-Victorian damsels— Sedate and They never took long chances, But knew just where to stop. Bed 10:15 The new-style girl is freer— Good grac how And in our modern fic Takes many asterisks. Drive th Park 9:30 to 10:00 comicbooks.com