Life, 1924-02-28 · page 9 of 36
Life — February 28, 1924 — page 9: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page satirizes after-dinner speaking at formal events. The top cartoon shows "An Editorial Service Station for Standardized Newspapers"—a visual joke where a newspaper editor selects pre-written editorials about weather and extinct mammals from pigeonholes, much like ordering from a vending machine. This mocks the standardization and lack of originality in newspaper content. Below, the article "Reforming After-Dinner Oratory" reports on various dinners where speakers addressed topics like property education and workers' rights. The accompanying illustration depicts a tedious after-dinner speaker boring his audience—suggesting that formal dinner speeches were considered tiresome social obligations rather than genuinely engaging presentations. The satire targets both standardized media and the predictable conventions of formal dining etiquette.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
AN EDITORIAL SERVICE STATION FOR STANDARDIZED NEWSPATERS Reforming After-Dinner Oratory HE chief reason why that dreary tendency of the periphery.” Mr. Otto Farmer a institution, the public dinner, is H. Kahn and others also spoke. , His ¢ such a gloomy affair is that the wrong way for the far ‘ men are always invited to address the Scnonarir, N. Y., Feb. 25.—The by borrowing more money unfortunate diners. True to its mis- annual dinner of the Dairymen’s League received. Mr. Otto H. Kal sion, Lire has quietly been working for — was addressed this evening by Mr. Ber- als the regulation of after-dinner speakers, nard M. Baruch, who spoke on “The with the beneficent results shown in these brief reports of recent dinners : New York City, Feb, 21.—The principal speaker at the annual dinner of the National Security League this evening was Mr. C. M. Ruthenherg, Secretary of the American Communist Society, whose stirring address on “Why Property Should Be Confiscated” was received with tumultuous applause. Mr. Otto H. Kahn and others also spoke. Boston, Mass. Feb. 23.—At_ the annual dinner of Dock Laborers’ Union No. 2, held at the Quincy House this evening, Professor Irving Fisher of Yale spoke on “The Worker's Need for an Elastic Dollar” to an audience that The Filler-in (abjectly): 1 weanize wildly cheered his assertion that “busi- THAT, PARTNER; BUT YOU SEF ness cycles are due to the centripetal Partner Cicily): on, so you d. comicbooks.com