Life, 1924-11-20 · page 10 of 40
Life — November 20, 1924 — page 10: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains three separate satirical pieces: 1. **"Thanksgiving Thinking"** (top): A sketch mocking Pilgrims' arrival and Thanksgiving hardships. The joke contrasts historical suffering with modern men's trivial concerns about football seating. 2. **"Garage Man" dialogue**: A tourist refuses gas from a garage attendant, claiming he's "just taking the air"—satirizing the leisure class's wasteful driving habits during the automobile era. 3. **"Evolution of a Prince of Jazz"**: Traces "Master Dicky Rozum" from Sunday School student to jazz musician to nightclub performer. The satire critiques jazz culture's perceived moral degradation—a common 1920s concern about jazz corrupting youth. 4. **"Ruining Business"**: A brief joke about falling birth rates among the wealthy, contrasted with working-class fertility—reflecting contemporary anxieties about social class demographics.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
GPE « Thanksgiving Thinking HEN a Pilgrim Father went to bring home the Thanksgiving turkey he risked being hit by a flying arrow. To-day it’s a Pierce-Arrow. The winters of the settlers were severe. In Massachusetts Bay Colony the people suffered almost as much as apart- ment house dwellers. Life had its compensations. Women of that day did not have to go outside their own homes for antique furniture. In spite of hardships men were singularly happy and free from care. They didn’t have to worry about getting seats for the family on the forty-yard line for Thanksgiving afternoon. McCready Huston. ARAGE MAN (to tourist filling tire): Oil or gas? Tourist: No, thanks; I'm just taking the air. Self-Sacrificing Sister: Xo, 0° COURSE I DON'T LIKE THIS RIG-OUT, LIZZIE SMIFF! IT ONLY WEARS IT SO PEOPLE'LL TAKE 'IM FER A PAMPERED SCION O° TH’ RICH. Evolution of a Prince of Jazz ASTER DICKY ROZUM is quietly removed from Sunday School for making the little girls laugh. The minister predicts that he will come to No Good End. Dicky Rozum flunks algebra for the third time and his teacher says he will never Succeed in Life. Dick Rozum is kicked out of prep. school for making the night hideous with his saxophone. Richard Rozum leaves his father’s office, accompanied by a blue streak of directions as to where he can go. Mr. R. Rozum becomes in rapid succession a reporter, bond salesman, and gents’ furnishing clerk, Richard Rozum collects a gang of four and furnishes extempore jazz for a friendly little dance. Dick Rozum gets together a little group of musicians for other dances. Dicky Rozum assembles a coterie of artists, known over the dance, victrola and radio world as Rozum's Play Boys. Welcome home to “Master” Dicky Rozum on his return to his native village! Banquet by the local Boosters, featur- ing an address by the minister who always knew that he would Make Good. W. L. Werner. Ruining Business IRST Om Stock Saresman: It's awful the way the Hy country’s birth-rate is going down! mom — 111 ABATE math Seconn Ditto: Yes, curse it! Fools are being born “SOMETIMES I THINK THEM SKYSCRAPERS HAVE TAKEN only every sixty-five seconds now. ALL THE ROMANCE OUTA THIS JOB,” comicbooks.com