Life, 1925-06-18 · page 20 of 43
Life — June 18, 1925 — page 20: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page from *Life* magazine contains several satirical pieces mocking American culture and behavior circa the 1920s. **"To a Golf Ball"** is a humorous poem (styled after Robert Burns) about a lost golf ball—the joke being that a poor farmer/caddie profits from collecting lost balls, presenting the golfer's frustration as his gain. **"Inefficient Efficiency"** satirizes the era's obsession with "efficiency" literature and management books—the irony being someone becomes so absorbed reading *about* efficiency that it ruins their actual work productivity. **"Americanism"** mocks American political behavior: citizens enthusiastically support Coolidge and "economy" before elections, then hypocritically complain about the economic effects of his thrift policies afterward. **The monkey cartoon** jokes that uncle and niece should visit the zoo "to call on the monkeys"—implying humans and monkeys are essentially equivalent, a subtle evolutionary jab. **"Prophet of the Great Outdoors"** satirizes a sheltered, bookish intellectual who writes successful Wild West fiction despite never experiencing outdoor adventure, then moves to the wilderness to authenticate his image—exposing pretentious posturing among writers.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
To a Golf Ball On Turnine It Up With a Prouce (After Bobbie Burns) EE, dimpled, smoutie, lang-lost ba’, Wha neath these clods hae ta’en a fa’, An’ skipped the ken o’ ane an’ a’, Strak by a laddie; Thou maun frae cen shrink far awa'— Frae een o' caddie. Thou, skirlin, fled fast frae th’ tee, As if thou'd gie a four or three. But best-made drives gang aft agley, And that is how, man, Lost ba’s bring siller in to me— To me, the ploughman. Fairfax Downey, Inefficient Efficiency "HAVE you been reading any books on efficiency ?” “Yes, but I got so interested in them that I found they were interfering with my regular work.” Old Stuff OURIST (in the G. O. Spaces) : Do people here believe the earth is round? Native: Hell, we got a fellar in town that can prove it MERICANISM: Whooping it up before election for Coolidge and economy; grumbling after election because of the effect of the Coolidge example of thrift CARL = Anne ® o——— “SHALL WE GO TO THE 200 AND CALL ON THE MONKEYS AGAIN, DOROTHY?” “WHY, UNCLE! IT's THEIR TURN TO CALL ON US.” A Patheti Prophet of the Great Outdoors HEN he was a little boy, his mother used to bundle him up in sweaters galore, woolen mit- tens, rubbers and leggings, and send him out to play with the other little boys. But he always came running back frigid with terror. A big dog had scowled at him, a strange cat had spat at him, or the neighbor's guinea pigs had adopted a menacing attitude. Thereupon, his mother would give him a spoonful of codliver oil, followed by a drink of hot lemonade, and Iet him run back into the library, where he loved to lose himself in “Lives of the Poets” in twelve volumes He grew into a dreamy, spindling, bespectacled youth who was addicted to mystic poetry which breathed a broad and sensitive humanitarianism. “The pale Tagore,” an cestatic spinster called him. He took to a vegetarian dict for the sake of his health. He never ventured out of the house except to buy books, a Windsor tic, or something like that. Reading the classics, writing sonnets, mooning at the piano—that was his day. But his love sonnets, alas, didn’t sell. They were delicately phrased and all that, but they were too tenuous, ethereal, detached. In desperation over dwindling funds he tried his hand at a Wild West thriller—and was fairly successful. In a short time he hi fiction. So, he moved ¢ alone in a ranj Mountains, shows him playi pictures him return great open spaces he | jauntily mounted on “Detonator.” Or else hi beside the carcass pf ay deadly rifle, He comes deposit his royalties anc on The Lure of ge Wil nounce that the Prophet soon be able to gratify is going to the Bengal ; phant bunt. Another P “DHWATSS a limerich “Sure, a limerick missing line in it” THe playing life of us, may last thirty to his family. comicbooks.com