Life, 1925-01-22 · page 8 of 36
Life — January 22, 1925 — page 8: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page is primarily text-based satirical commentary rather than a political cartoon. The central feature is a boxed announcement declaring "This Is NATIONAL THRIFT WEEK," accompanied by a postscript noting Congressional appropriations for Prohibition enforcement totaling $59,643,268. The satire is clear: Life is mocking the government's spending on Prohibition enforcement while simultaneously promoting "thrift." The juxtaposition highlights the hypocrisy—the government wastes enormous sums enforcing an unpopular law while citizens are urged to save money. The surrounding brief humorous anecdotes about insurance, automobiles, and other topics reinforce Life's satirical tone toward contemporary American absurdities and government excess during the Prohibition era.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
HE world-famous Poet Laureate of Great Britain is to visit the United States again this winter. Ladies and gentlemen, may we introduce Mister— ah—Mister—er-— JL Now that we have had time to calm down after secing the pictures of the French lady who insured her legs for $100,000, we are shown a picture of an Ameri girl who has insured her teeth for the same amount. Are insurance agents overlooking something in not getting Peccy Hopkins to take out a policy on her wedding-ring finger? aL Over one hundred million people in the United States escaped being run over by automobiles last year, several of them having also escaped the year before. LL The old cry of “Get a ‘horse” seems to have been changed to “Get a pedestrian.” JL Marshal Focu is excited over the discovery that Germany has an army of 700,000 volunteers. Well, we still have God and a (very) few marines. +L And Major-General Patrick wants a larger air force to make New York safe from foreign invasion. Perhaps it would be better if the General started off with a suggestion for making New York safe from itself. JL Attention has been called to the fact that Americans have decreased half an inch in stature in the last fifty years, They'll have to do better than that if they want to keep pace with kitchenette apartmen: n Captain Ropert A. Bartvett is lead- ing a party in the exploration of the Endless Caverns near New Market, Va. Opinion is divided among explorers as to whether the party when it gets to the end will find a “No-Parking” sign, a hot-dog stand or a filling station, JL During blizzards, news services have been using radio for transmitting news to papers in isolated towns. But what good does that do? They can't broad- cast the comic strips. JL Some enterprising opened a chop have restaurant in Americans suey This Is NATIONAL THRIFT WEEK P. S.—Congressional appropriations for the enforcement of National Prohibition to date amount to $59.652.468. Shanghai—the first of its kind in all ina. This would indicate that ci lization is still advancing. If we keep at it, sooner or later we'll teach those heathens how to play Mah Jong. aL At this rate, we expect to hear that some young ladies from Dubuque have started Ye Olde English Tea Shoppe in London, Dr. Crype Fisuer, who has been t ing Lapland for the Museum of Natural History, reports that the Arctic tern (it's a bird) in migrating makes round trip of 22,000 miles a year. WV stop-offs, he might have added, 84,978 crossword puzzles. aL Crossword, oh, crossword, pause, Tir in thy flight. What is the name of the “goddess night”? JL Several European scientists a coming here to study the infl enza germ. They might al examine such typical insects the presidential bee, the Broa way butterfly, the crosswor! puzzle pest and the radio bu JL A recent estimate places tl diameter of the universe at or million times ten million tim: the distance of the earth fror the sun. Certainly, the Create of anything as stupendous a this deserves to be mentione in the same breath with Ceci B. De Mitte. JL And yet, if interstellar trave were possible and we could en counter a man on Betelgeusc who knew our friend, Mr. Sims of Seattle, our first words un doubtedly would be, “It's a small universe, after all.” aL The picture supplements of the Sunday papers have shown President Coo.ince on skis. The people who got those under him have done something that the Democrats couldn’t do. aL The Sun god (whose name, as every one now knows, is Ra) has probably asked that the total eclipse of the world be made permanent. JL And now for the amalgamation of the Sun, Moon and Globe. The Munsey influence seems to be at work in the solar system. comicbooks.com