Life, 1924-07-24 · page 21 of 36
Life — July 24, 1924 — page 21: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains three distinct satirical pieces: **"Poetry-in-the-Home" Week** (by Stoddard King): Humorous verse mocking the era's proliferation of themed "awareness weeks." The poem catalogs personal disasters during Safety Week, Prune Week, Music Week, etc., suggesting these observances are performative and ineffective—the speaker follows the principle while suffering actual consequences (truck accident, broken tooth, pawned scarfpin, neighbor's saxophone noise). **"Mrs. Pep's Diary" (July 22nd)**: A gossipy first-person account satirizing upper-middle-class domestic life. The diarist complains about minor inconveniences (eyelash, hunger from fasting) while shopping for books and jewelry, revealing self-centered preoccupations and class anxieties. **"Worth Considering"**: A domestic cartoon joke about servants. A couple debates firing their housemaid due to conflict with the children, then realizes they "couldn't discharge the children"—dark humor about the permanence of parenthood versus replaceable household help. All three pieces mock contemporary social pretensions and domestic frustrations with gentle, satirical humor typical of 1920s Life magazine.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
| - LIFE: .- 19 Lines for “‘Poetry-in-the-Home” Week AFETY WEEK was a noble week, And a week of high endeavor, When I said to myself: “Be safe, be safe, And let who will be clever,” But that was the week I tried my luck, Catch-as-catch-can, with a five-ton truck. | Prune Weck was a thrilling week, A nourishing week, forsooth, But that was the weck a prune’s proud pit Clashed with a fragile tooth; And my last good scarfpin went in pawn With Save-and-Have Week not yet gone. . Music Weck was as vital a week As any that I have known, But that was the week the neighbors’ hoy | Purchased ‘a saxophone, Which he played both presto and con amore Till Silence Week was a twice-told story. Yet I shall go on observing Weeks, Ns Lepis Diary> DEVICE FOR PULLING UP THE GARTER WITHOUT STOOPING And sounding their endless praise; I'll even do better, I'll toss my hat In favor of various Days! With me it’s not the results they bring— 22nd | It's just the Principle of the Thing J Awake betimes, distraught to my wits’ end by a foreign particle under my eyelid. I tried to be- think me of the Spartan lad with the fox in his jacket, and grew all a-twitter because I could not recall Stoddard King. where and why he was in such a.predicament. To the shelves to refresh my memory, where, pondering that I have for- got most of my mythology also, I did search in vain for Bulfinch's Age of Fable. So, since I am for- bidden to eat aught on Thursday save the juice of six oranges, and am therefore in need of whatever diversion offers, to the shops to buy another, and as I was browsing over the first counter a simpering saleswoman approached me and asked, Are you interested in books? whereto I retorted, No! as sharply as I dared, which I secretly regretted, but, Lord! why is it that one must call upon the aisle man for service in depart- ments where one wants it and is literally besieged in those where one doesn't? I dare say I had been more gentle had I breakfasted. I have never comprehended the quip, Some one must have been feeding him meat, spoken of one whose be- haviour is churlish, forasmuch as an empty stomach robs me not only | { WORTH CONSIDERING of my serenity, but almost of my “I’M AFRAID WE'LL HAVE TO DISCHARGE THE HOUSEMAID, HENRY. SHE AND THE philosophy. Thence to the jewel- CHILDREN DON'T GET ON TOGETHER.” er’s, to leave my silver earring to “THAT'S TOUGH LUCK. WE COULDN'T DISCHARGE THE CHILDREN, COULD WE?” (Continued on page 28) comicbooks.com