Life — September 25, 1924 — page 13: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This is a multi-panel comic strip titled "Skippy" depicting a young boy and his friend "Sooky" attempting to buy alcohol at a drugstore during Prohibition (when alcohol sales were legally banned in the U.S.). The satire targets Prohibition's ineffectiveness: children easily circumvent the law by using transparent excuses ("have a drink," "take medicine"). The drugstore clerk sells them what appears to be beer despite their obvious youth and thin pretenses. The humor satirizes how Prohibition failed to prevent alcohol consumption—even children could access drinks. "Castor oil" reference suggests drugstores legally sold alcohol as "medicine," exploiting a loophole. The strip mocks both the law's naïveté and widespread public flouting of it during this era.