Life, 1925-01-22 · page 9 of 36
Life — January 22, 1925 — page 9: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page from *Life* magazine contains three distinct satirical pieces: 1. **"Advice to Young Mothers"**: Parodies typical parenting advice columns by having fathers offer tongue-in-cheek, impractical suggestions about diet, clothing, entertainment, and training—mocking both new parents and prescriptive advice literature. 2. **"A Bloc Congressman on the Theory That Two and Two Make Four"**: A congressman argues that Wall Street financiers control mathematics itself and suppress free speech. This satirizes populist suspicions of wealthy elites manipulating truth and information—likely referencing Progressive Era anxieties about corporate power. 3. **"Definition Wanted"**: A cartoon showing an employer asking a young employee if he understands the meaning of "work," mocking both generational gaps and naive youth entering employment. The overall tone critiques social hypocrisy and power imbalances of the era.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Advice to Young Mothers As Gioen by Young Fathers on the Following Important Matters Diet ‘| LL tell you what I'd do if I were feeding that kid and he kept on refusing his mush like that. I'd say, *[. a't, then, darn yuh!’ and let it go at ' Weight [ don't see why this infant has to weighed in at the ringside every liume day. If the doctor pesters you t it, just tell him the figure on this ted card on what kids ought to weigh and that'll hold the old boy for hile.” Clothing : < Beats me why just a baby needs ha raft of clothes.” Entertainment I've done all my stuff and she won't laugh at me. Why don't you give her imp of sugar? That ought to keep her quiet.” Training “A little of the old army discipline is what that spoiled youngster of ours ds. I'd show you if I wasn't afraid d howl bloody murder again.” On, THE KLEA WINDOW IN HIS CHURCH E ENDOWS A STAINED GLASS Mother's Aid “Sure, I'd be glad to bring you some gimp for baby’s dress from that drawer, if I knew what the deuce gimp was and what drawer out of a possible seventeen it is you mean.” Fairfax Downey. DEFINITION WANTED 7 A Bloc Congressman on the Theory That Two and Two Make Four “"TWO and two is four, ch? Well, how do I know it? Who says so? The schoolbooks. And who makes the schoolbooks? The publishers. And who runs the publishers? Wall Street! Wall Street!!! The money barons trying to put one over again! I wouldn't believe those rich scoundrels, those moneyed octopuses, on oath! All they do is filch from the horny hand of the laboring man—the bulwark of the nation—all his wages, earned by the sweat of his brow and his heart's blood! Two and two is four, eh? Wall Street is trying to screw the lid a little tighter on the free expression of opinion! Free speech, bah! We have no free speech if we can't say two and two is five or six, as the case may be. Two and two is four? No, sir! I vote for the com- mon people, the sovereign rights of the American working man. I vote NO, a thousand times NO.” John C. Emery. he must be. She's had only one husband.” Ii i fH lh : YOUNG MAN, DO YOU KNOW THE MEANING OF THE worD “worK"? His Youngest Employee: sure, BOSS, WHATCHER DOIN’, A CROSSWORD PUZZLE? comicbooks.com