Life, 1924-05-15 · page 20 of 46
Life — May 15, 1924 — page 20: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This cartoon satirizes pseudoscientific claims and consumer gullibility. The image shows nine numbered figures arranged in a circle around a dead cat, illustrating the old superstition that cats have nine lives. The caption reads: "They test the theory that a cat has nine lives." The joke targets people who believe unproven claims without evidence—here, literally testing folklore. In context with the page's other articles (which mock "modernism" and dubious inventions), it's satirizing 1920s American consumer culture: people eagerly purchasing golf equipment with exaggerated claims, artificial tees, and "secret metal" drivers, much as the cartoon's characters naively test folk superstitions. The cartoon mocks both superstition and the modern marketplace's equivalent: believing marketing hype over reason.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
THE SKEPTICS’ SOCIETY THEY TEST THE THEORY Music Furnished for All Occasions THAT A CAT HAS NINE LIVES. HE tourist in scarch of primitive jazz stuff from Sol Saxoy romance had reached the remotest Orchestra, Hotel Hooch, New th Sea Isles, Station WOOF. Eleven — the of the tropics was mounting les; not so bad, hey? Whereupon the seeker of primitive romance gave a piercing ery and went the hill-tops and throwing soft shadows of palm trees upon a beach of dull silver. all to pieces morally. 1.H.P. Native... girls” (approached, gently be Eel nat The Uses of Insolvency Then came the opening strains of ) . carton players member, Abie, that nothing suc- ceeds like success—except, now and “Where is the orchestra?” asked the then, a good failure. ‘N seeker of primitive roma ant bower? Mt.” answered the chief of the “the in some fr: “To-nig islanders, ODERNISM"—another good girls are getting their word in bad! Long Driving I VENTURE person in my there is not a f club old enough to remember seeing me in the rough grass; I don’t drive very far, but | am never more than ten yards aw from the mathematical middle of the course. to. say I had direction; all I needed to make me a first-class golfer was I went about acquiring it sci My first move was to buy a magazine yout golf and make a list from the advertisements of the articles which contribute to length in a man’s drive. There was, of course, the “Flilong” hall (pronounced “flylong”), which ex- pert golfers from all over the know world were It was the known.” writing in to recommend longest-flying ball golf has That it exactly the kind of ball 1 was looking ever seemed to make for I ordered a dozen for trial, ( he next page was the new patent driver invented by an Englishman named Macdonald Gallagher. Its face was of some secret metal which Mr Gallagher had discovered, and each head was warranted to have been weighed and balanced with wood and steel and ivory by Mr. Gallagher himself—a’bril- liant-looking club. Just to look at the picture inspired you. ver the top was the question, “Are you getting your maximum distance?” There question about it in my case; I ordered one. On the page opposite, my eye alighted remarkable artificial tee. The as, “It makes bad shots good, rod shots bette I didn’t bother any farther; obviously the thing ) was to puta of these tees and hit it with the Gal- lagher Special. I ordered a box. was no ona an wa jilong” ball on one if I felt by this time that my drive was nut as long as I could control, so, out of the score of other accoutrements es- sential to the long driver, I selected only One was the famous Maxo Golf made out of a preparation th: kept the air from coming in con with the shafts of the clubs and so pre- served their elasticity. The other was a combination arch-supporter and sock which made the player use all his body in the shot by springing his arches at the instant of impact ct They came five days ago, and they have made a big difference in my game. T seem to go just about as far as ever, but T haven't of the fairway ed a second shot out Berry Fleming. comicbooks.com