Life, 1924-09-11 · page 8 of 36
Life — September 11, 1924 — page 8: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains three separate pieces: 1. **"A Nature Lyric"** — A poem about a man who praises ants for their industriousness and asks the narrator not to harm them, only to have a neighbor later ask why the man's fig tree died. The satire targets hypocritical sentimentality about nature. 2. **"Mrs. Pep's Diary"** — A dated entry (September 9th-10th) containing gossip about servants and financial matters. This appears to be a recurring domestic humor column mocking upper-class social concerns. 3. **"Noblely Planned"** — A brief dialogue about building a garage, followed by commentary on radio broadcasting and hecklers. 4. **Bottom cartoon** — Shows a chaotic domestic scene captioned about someone making "a big mistake" with an electric fan in a portable bungalow—slapstick humor about modern conveniences.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Betty YES, IF MY Lay piece we late, pondering — the saw last night, wherein a man and wife are beset by the incorrigible flapper who is their daughter, and at their wits’ end to deal with her properly. Fifteen years ago there was no such problem September 9th for any given parents who had gone as far as the eighth grade themselves and spent at least one New Year's Eve at Marti ind: why our civilization has come to a pass which permits a female child to rush in where a woman of the underworld would fear to tread I know not, nor can I do aught about it. But I am so weary of reading of such do- ings that at times I do wish our novel- ists and playwrights would get back to lavender and old lace. It might not be art, but it would be a change....Up and off to the shops, purchasing a fine purse of silk and needlepoint for which I laid out a prodigious sum, and if it be true that a comfort derives from being well arelled which religion can never bestow, I should needs pay no pew rent for years to come....To dine with the Eatons, and when I asked my husband, poor wretch, why he should be carrying his pocket flask to a house where it is almost impossible to get a drink of water, he quoth, Expe- HANDS Al ARE YOU GOING TO SMOKE WHEN YOU GROW UP? Kitty Ns. Reps Diary PRETTY. rience has taught me never to go any- where without something on my hip— not even to church, September ane Martin to see me 10th before I had left my bed, she distraught through the loss of her most recent servants, and off to an agency for more. Bob and I have decided, quoth K., that if ever we lose all sources of income, we shall hire (Continued on page 27) A Nature Lyric IS spectacles bulged flatly the rim, Like bottles set into a window pane, And these he claimed made everything so plain That nothing was a mystery to him. from So once while we were standing in the yard, Watching the busy ants stream up a tree, He praised them for their ways of working hard, And showed me, with a kind of holy glee, The ant-cows that they herded from a leaf To pasture on a new and tender stem— Of this he made a homily—in brief, He asked me to withhold my hand from them, Poor simple I, by nature edified With love of ant for aphid, did not spray, Until a neighbor passed the time of day And asked me why it was my fig tree died. Hervey Allen. Nobly Planned RUE: So you're going to build again? Sue: Yes, that’s the only way we can profit by our mistakes. HE use of the radio in broadcasting campaign speeches will never be popular until a device is perfected whereby hecklers are enabled to answer hack JONES MADE A BIG MISTAKE WHEN HE TURNED ON AN ELECTRIC FAN IN HIS PORTABLE BUNGALOW. comicbooks.com