Life, 1925-02-12 · page 22 of 36
Life — February 12, 1925 — page 22: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains three distinct pieces of humor satirizing early 20th-century American life: **"Patterson M. Vegetable"** (top): A mock biographical article about an inventor of compartmentalized dinner plates containing various unpleasant vegetables. The satire targets both the inventor (portrayed as bitter and unlikable) and restaurant culture's acceptance of unpalatable food. The elaborate funeral wreaths made of vegetables underscore the dark comedy. **"Suburban Shots"** (right column): Brief, quip-style observations mocking suburban and commuter life, including references to Prohibition-era "home brew" explosions, marital tensions during furnace-tending season, and the gap between Fourth of July socializing and New Year's isolation. These capture 1920s anxieties about suburban monotony and domestic responsibilities. **"Time-Savers for Commuters"** (bottom): A cartoon showing a revolving office desk that spins a commuter immediately back home—satirizing the commuter's desire to escape work and the monotony of suburban commuting. The overall theme mocks the emerging suburban lifestyle and its discontents.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
THE FIRST IMPRESSION American Inventors’ Series Patterson M. Vegetable HE death of Patterson M. Vegetable, one of the most cordially hated men in North America, brings to light for the first time the story of the invention which earned him the position he occupies to-day. Three wreaths of par- snips, a bouquet of cabbages, and a large floral piece made entirely of carrots and spinach, which decorated the coffin at his funeral, were silent testimony to the universal dis- like which he enjoyed. It was the old, old story, yet ever new, of two men and a girl; in the ensuing triangle poor Patterson found himself hopelessly the hypotenuse. Soured and embittered in love, he turned to the soil; and in his little truck garden on Long Island he devoted long hours to raising obnoxious species of plants and herbs. This morbid tendency led eventually to his famous invention of a platter with various compart- ments, into which he fitted one species of each unpleasant plant he had produced, calling the whole affair, in his dryly humorous way, a “Dinner.” The comparative economy of this idea appealed to the restaurants; and the embittered old man found the last years of his life considerably brightened by the sight of thousands of restaurant patrons seated before these plates endeavoring to eat one of Vegetable’s “Dinners,” or “Vege- table Dinners,” as they came in time to be called. Corey Ford. Motif Sardine HILE the popular notion is that travel is broadening the commuter often finds it distinctly flattening. HE Grand Duke Boris says his visit here has no political significance. He probably doesn't realize himself how painfully true that is. Suburban Shots OWADAYS the sound of an ex- plosion makes neighbors wonder not whose house is being robbed but who is having such tough luck with his home brew. eee A man can't always be blamed tu> trumping his wife's ace when he's we dering whether he ought to go dc and stoke the furnace next hand or wait until he’s dummy. eee It is surprising how many more cit friends a man living out of town h: on the Fourth of July than he has on New Year's Eve. eee There are a lot of high grade rai roads around these parts with low grade crossings. cee Keep your eye on the young man who comes back from an automobile ride with his flask empty and his gas tank still nearly full eee The fellow who can afford to lay in his coal in Augy usually spends his winters in Florida. eee It's sort of rubbing it in, when you miss the 8:12 after a cross-country run, to open your paper in the railroad station and read about Nurmi’s breaking another record. J.K.M Time-Savers for Commuters TURN-TABLE OFFICE AS SOON AS THE SUBURBANITE SITS DOWN TO WORK THE OFFICE REVOLVES AND STARTS 111M HOME AGAIN. comicbooks.com