Life — September 18, 1924 — page 9: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# Explanation for Modern Readers This satirical page celebrates different occupational groups through caricatured illustrations. The layout identifies: - **"The Farmers"** (top left): Rural workers with produce - **"And the Street Cleaners"** (bottom left): Labor workers with brooms - **"And the Hundred Per Cent. Business Men"** (top right): Well-dressed figures at a table, appearing to celebrate or conduct business - **"And, Above All, Those Industrious Home Builders, The Bricklayers"** (bottom): Construction workers in formal dress holding tools The satire appears to mock the pretensions of "hundred per cent. business men" by elevating working-class professions (farmers, cleaners, bricklayers) as worthy of equal or superior respect. The contrast between formal attire and manual labor suggests irony about who truly contributes to society. This reflects early 20th-century class commentary typical of *Life* magazine's satirical tradition.