Life, 1925-01-01 · page 15 of 37
Life — January 1, 1925 — page 15: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
**"To a Consignee" (T.L.M.):** A letter mocking post-WWI relief shipments to Europe in 1925. The author sarcastically advises keeping only the most radical reformers among recipients and suggests that politicians, intellectuals, and scientists will "eventually" solve world problems through transportation. The tone is bitter toward contemporary aid efforts and their perceived ineffectiveness. **"In New York":** A brief joke about a New Yorker's inability to give directions, playing on the stereotype of New York insularity and self-absorption. **"Mrs. Pep's Diary":** Domestic humor about Christmas preparations and family gatherings, detailing gift-receiving, party planning, and household management during the holiday season. The page exemplifies Life's mix of social commentary, urban wit, and domestic satire typical of 1920s American humor magazines.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
~ LIFE - To a Consignee TO 1925. Under separate atmospheric inclosure, we are sending ou, charges to follow, one world. We have not mech hope you will make it any better, but while there is Lire cre’s always hope, and we therefore make the following gestions: Keep the flappers. They give the shipment color, and so good raw material. Weed out the most timid reformers. Keep only those © are red-hot, and a hundred per cent. asinine. We need vse guys to make us humble. As for the politicians, the intellectuals, the theologians, ¢ scientists, the business men and all the other speci- mens, let ‘em alone; they will hang themselves eventually Also, let the great movement for bringing the world sser together by transportation keep right on. You won't ave to bother about war when we world inhabitants get know one another. But give us better headwaiters. The present lot won't do at all. They favor fat, pursy idies and elderly millionaires too much. We need at least a couple of thousand more good, expert cadwaiters scattered around the world, who will place us ight, and give us bread. We want bread! In New York » mister, could you tell me where ——?” Sorry, sir, sorry, but I'm a New Yorker myself.” “ARE THESE PEOPLE GOD'S PRESS-AGENTS, MOTHER?” December Ware early by aan carol of “Hark, the 25th Herald Angels Sing!” So up to put “Adeste Fidelis” on the gramophone, and then at my packages, finding to my surprise many gifts which pleased me, in especial the cheque from my husband, and I do thank the little gods who watch over me for keeping him another year from the shops. A brisk argument with Sam over the book-ends sent us by H. Innes, the poor wretch insisting that they were andirons and setting them up in front of the fireplace, and I was at some pains to convince him differently. Cora Scovil took no such chance, her offering being accompanied by a card which read: lf on the happy Christmas Day You open up this box and say. “For Heaven's sake, now what is that?” THEY'RE STANDS WHEREON YOU PARK YOUR HAT! I received no door stops or china ornaments or art needle- work, which I am glad of. Sam, getting restless under the pleasant excitement which prevailed all day, did begin to . wonder after luncheon if the men who left Charlotte and —— Louis Bishop's Christmas Eve party with us were still “DON'T GET SCARED, MR. MOVIE STAR, WE AIN'T GONNA down at the Brook Club; so I did straightway mix him HURT YOU. ME AN’ ME PAL HERE HAS A LITTLE BET a fine and potent punch, as good, he swore, as the house- ON T SEE IF YOU'D PUT UP A SCRAP LIKE YOU DONE keeper in “Balisand” made, which contented him to stop WHEN YOU WAS HELD UP IN THAT THERE PICTURE, at home until it was time to dress for the Roberts’ dinner. ‘ONE FOGGY NIGHT. (Continued on page 32) comicbooks.com