Life, 1925-01-01 · page 13 of 37
Life — January 1, 1925 — page 13: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains three distinct sections: a poem titled "Lines for a New Year's Card" by Baird Leonard; an essay on Philadelphia by James K. McGuinness; and humorous illustrated vignettes. The two captioned illustrations satirize domestic life. The top drawing shows a couple where the woman (Jacqueline) claims "a pagan body but a puritan mind," while the man (Jack) asks if she's "ever absent-minded?"—suggesting marital tension around fidelity and restraint. The lower illustration depicts two people arguing over a plant, with one demanding money back for a century-old specimen that "hasn't bloomed yet." These cartoons mock middle-class anxieties about morality, materialism, and spousal expectations—typical satirical subjects for Life magazine's urbane readership.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
» LIFE: Lines for a. New Year's Card HEN skies above are dull and gray And life seems profitless and stale, To you my gloomy fancies stray— I drop a letter in the mail Informing you how much I long To have you, at the moment, near, Listening to my sorry song And drying every single tear. When life is simply swell and grand And things are coming straight to me, Having you somewhere close at hand Increases my felicity. . . . I want you when the skies are lead, I want you when the skies are blue, And that’s as much as can be said For anybody—even you! Baird Leonard. Little Journeys to Big Towns Philadelphia HILADELPHIA was the City of Friends until its citizens took sides in the matter of General Smedley Butler. Now part of the population is shouting to the Fighting Marine, “Attaboy!"” while another section is get- ting set to murmur, “Hail and Varewell!” All roads in town lead to the City Hall. Footpaths cross beneath that structure. This makes Philadelphia unique among municipalities, since it is the only one in the country where the citizens are let in on the ground floor of a Governmental building. For long Philadelphia was regarded as one of the most American of cities. Many of its later residents, however, are only one generation removed from the Old Country— Delancey Street, New York. Throughout the nation Philadelphia is noted for its Democratic minorities, A. Drexel Biddle’s Bible classes, Connie Mack's baseball kindergarten, nickel-in-the-slot food dispensaries, and a suburb called Germantown, which did not change its name to Libertyville during the War. Benjamin Franklin moved to Philadelphia from Boston at an early age; proving, according to Philadelphians, how astute he was thus young in life, or, leaving it to Bos- tonians, that he was not old enough to know better. James K. McGuinness, Live and Let Live ba HEN sick, I go at once to a doctor. Doctors have to live. And then, after getting the prescription, I go directly to a druggist. Druggists must live. Arriving home, I immediately throw the medicine into the fire.” “Why do you do that?” “I also must live.” WHEN we asked our stenographer, who is a crossword puzzle fan, to get us a telephone number, she looked in the dictionary for it. Jacqueline: THEY SAY 1 HAVE A PAGAN BODY BUT A PURITAN MIND, Jack: ARE YOU EVER ABSENT-MINDED? Gar 6) Methuselah; were’s THAT OLD CENTURY PLANT 1 BOUGHT FROM YOUR GREAT-GREAT-GRANDDAD THREE HUN- DRED YEARS AGO AND THE BLAMED THING HASN'T BLOOMED YET! | WANT MY MONEY BACK! comicbooks.com