Life, 1925-06-25 · page 25 of 37
Life — June 25, 1925 — page 25: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains several satirical pieces typical of Life's humor: **"The Magical Peas"** is a whimsical poem by David McCord about Cook attempting to shell peas from a pod. The humor lies in personifying the peas as characters reacting with fear to her "imperious thumb," then mysteriously disappearing—likely eaten by the Cook herself, creating an absurdist joke about the peas' sudden "escape." **The encyclopedia entry on "Evolution"** sarcastically references the 1925 Scopes Monkey Trial in Tennessee, where teaching evolution was prosecuted. Life mocks William Jennings Bryan (who prosecuted the case) by suggesting his attendance at political conventions proves humans resemble apes—a backhanded jab at anti-evolutionists' apparent lack of self-awareness. **Minor jokes** include a "beauty show" pun ("beauty is only skin-deep"), a married couple's banter about secrecy, and a golf joke referencing "municipal links" (likely a WWI bombardment reference—soldiers hunched from shell shock). The cartoons throughout use exaggerated animal characters and situations for comedic effect.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
- LIFE - wer weelaat~ “WHAT'S THIS [ HEAR ABOUT MISS HIPPO WINNING FIRST PRIZE AT THE BEAUTY SHOW?” “THAT'S RIGHT, YOU SEE, THE JUDGES ALL HAD TO ADMIT THAT BEAUTY WAS ONLY SKIN-DEEP.” Companion Volumes . UBBY: You never tell me anything. Your whole life is a closed book to me. Wirey: Well, John, dear, you're no loose-leaf ledger yourself. A Bombardment Veteran “Wry does that golfer walk away all hunched over after he hits his ball?” “Oh, he’s all right; he just learned to play on a municipal links.” The Magical Peas HIS is a matter of seventeen odd Contiguous peas in a paragon pod Awaiting the day when a casual prod Of a thumb should deliver them all from the pod, The contiguous peas, the succulent peas, The edible peas from the pod. Cook had a vigorous, venturous thumb; She waggled it first at the peas and said, “Come!” And some of them laughed and made faces and some Of the tender ones shrank from the menacing thumb, The imperious thumb, the imminent thumb, The importunate, dangerous thumb. All of the peas—there were seventeen odd Contained in that royal Gargantuan pod— Made ready to fly at the veriest nod Of the leader, the pea at the end of the pod, The Gargantuan pod, the particular pod, The copious, ponderous pod. Cook laid a sinister, muscular thumb At the end of the pod and she wiggled it some; And seventeen peas that were meant for the tum Disappeared in a flash. “What has ever become Of the magical peas, the escapable peas, The peas from the end of my thumb?” David McCord. Lire’s Encyclopedia VOLUTION (Lat., evolutio)—A theory which traces the development of man from a minute cell through the Anthropoid Ape. As recently as 1925 its adherents were persecuted in Tennessee, where, it is said, there were no 200logical gardens at the time and where, in consequence, the feasibility of the theory was not apparent. However, ignorance of man’s resemblance to the apes cannot have actuated William Jennings Bryan, the most ardent anti- evolutionist of those days, who, it is positively recorded, had attended a number of political conventions. intolerance of the 1925 monkey controversy is attributed by Much of the evolutionists to our unwillingness to see ourselves as others see us. Stuart Little, Captain (to old shipmate): WHAT'S THE TROUBLE, MATEY? Driver: HAVEN'T THE DAMNEDEST IDEA, WE'RE BECALMED. comicbooks.com