Life, 1924-12-04 · page 27 of 72
Life — December 4, 1924 — page 27: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page satirizes sentimental Christmas stories through absurd contrasts. The humor lies in juxtaposing mundane or dark life experiences with saccharine nostalgia: **Eleanor's story** mocks wealthy privilege—Christmas atop Mont Blanc with children casually firing a .44 revolver as entertainment. **Lester Franklin's contribution** is darkly comic: his "happiest" Christmas memories include time in Sing Sing prison and safecracking, yet he's concerned about forgetting his high school teacher's name—mundane memory loss overshadowing serious crimes. **The "No Funds" joke** satirizes consumerism: a banker knows Grisley finished Christmas shopping because his account is now empty. The illustration shows a steeljack's child hanging a stocking from a precarious urban height—visual irony suggesting danger where Christmas warmth should exist. The overall satire critiques how Americans romanticize Christmas regardless of circumstances, and how sentimental holiday narratives can mask absurdity, criminality, or class disparity.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
My Happiest Christmas Bi y Donald Ogden Stewart Eleanor (Mrs. W. H.) Carrington—Cincinnati, O. Y happiest Christmas was spent on the top of Mont Blanc. All my children were home from school and college and we were all together for the first time in many months except Tom, my second boy, who was in America on some railroad business. The top of Mont Blane was covered with snow that year, which pleased the children very much. “Santa can come,” they cried and indeed he did come, bringing us all something—“just what we wanted” in every case. Billy, my youngest, got a new .44 revolver and any number of bullets which he and Susan shot off all day except in the dining-room, I remember. My husband got several new neckties and a lap rug for the Ford. All in all, it was our happiest Christmas. Mr, Samuel Ellis—Galion, O. My happiest Christmas? Bless your heart, I've had so many happy Christmases. They are all just like bright jewels in my memory, First, there was the winter my brother broke his leg and had to be carried four miles in a raging blizzard to have it set. I shall never forget how grateful we were that it didn't happen on Christmas Day. It made us all the merrier. And then there was the Christ- mas the barn burned down. It’s mighty hard to say which was my happiest Christmas. All of them, I guess. Mr. Lester Franklin—Brooklyn, N.Y. My happiest Christmas was spent in Sing Sing prison where I was doing “time” for petit larceny—or maybe it was the winter I blew that safe at Hartford. I think my memory is getting worse instead of better as I grow older, The other day I tried for almost an hour to remember the name of my teacher back in the second year of high school and couldn't. I think it was Miss Roberts, except that Miss Roberts never used to eat her lunch with the rest of the second-year teachers. Maybe it was Miss Walker. Mrs. Gertrude Wallace—San Francisco, Cal. I think my very happiest Christmas was spent in Sacra- mento on a fruit farm. We had never had snow there for Christmas and we didn’t have any that year, either. But we had something better. We had Aunt Katherine, who had come all the way from Los Angeles. She died the next year and I shall never get over the feeling I have that we should have let her light more of the candles on the tree. “No Funds” ROCK: How do you know Grisley has finished his Christmas shopping ? Crocker: I work in the bank where he kept his account. HERE was a falling off of $11,000,000 in the soft drink consumption last year. The trouble is that the bar- tenders always think you're kidding. THE STEEPLEJACK'S CHILD HANGS UP HIS STOCKING comicbooks.com