Life, 1924-12-04 · page 47 of 72
Life — December 4, 1924 — page 47: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a comedic cautionary tale about a burglar's bad luck. The narrative describes a household in chaos: a mother annoyed about regifting a terrible sofa cushion, a father stressed over Christmas debt and borrowing money. A burglar enters expecting an easy target, assuming only a purring cat awaits—instead, the entire frazzled household is awake and stirring. The burglar's downfall comes when he steps on the family dog's (Towser's) tail on the floor. The punchline: his violent reaction to the dog triggers such commotion that he's incapacitated for seventeen years, unable to commit further crimes. The satire mocks both the stressed American consumer (burdened by Christmas spending) and presents burglary as comically defeated by domestic chaos rather than police intervention. It's darkly humorous about financial anxiety and family stress during the holiday season.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
io a mother who entertained ang, doubt and fear concern- ing a neighbor who'd sent her last year the worst sofa cush ion in pink, green and black and now she, all forgetful, had sent the thing back!; and a father who picked at the bedclothes and swore at how every blamed Christmas just seemed to cost more—why, he’d scarcely paid up For last year's Christmas bliss (he had borrowed to swing it) and now here was this! “10h, the stage was all set for a man whose profession was taking what others had in their possession and so this one thought that perhaps a cat purring was all that he'd meet,but the whole house was stirring! He took a long chance through the han- diest door—and scepped upon Towser'’s long tail on the floor. “1Frazzled nerves do their worst when the burglar appears “LHe will do no more stirring for seventeen years! comicbooks.com