Life, 1925-07-23 · page 23 of 36
Life — July 23, 1925 — page 23: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page features book reviews and a satirical cartoon titled "Office Efficiency." The cartoon depicts an absurdly complex office workspace filled with tangled wires, pulleys, and mechanical contraptions—a visual joke about how modern offices, despite technological "efficiency" improvements, have become chaotic and overcomplicated rather than streamlined. The left sidebar contains a public service message: "This is God's Own Country / Don't Knock-Boost!" highlighting that 87,616 children under fifteen work in American mines, mills, and factories. This appears to be ironic social criticism—calling America "God's Own Country" while exposing child labor exploitation. The book reviews discuss literary works including *Serena Blandish*, a novel about a woman struggling to marry, and *Seducers in Ecuador*, a dark tale involving murder. The reviews are written in the sophisticated, somewhat sarcastic tone characteristic of *Life* magazine's literary criticism.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
“QERENA BLANDISH, OR THE DIFFICULTY OF GETTING MARRIED,” by a Lady of Quality (Doran), is the choice bit of the season to date, and is herewith recommended to all who like sophisticated humor smacking strongly of Max Beerbohm. Recommended up to page 220, to be ac- curate, for the final portion of the book went bad on me, as Walter Pater might put it, save for the concluding relief of the butler, who had begun to fear that he himself might have had to marry Serena, This very butler, Martin, is the high light of the book, and his sage pronouncements to Serena might well he taken seriously by all young women the lookout for a husband. For in- stance: “A lady who stays to tea where he has been asked to luncheon is never engaged to be married.” And, after learning that our heroine had done exactly that: “If you haven't a ring on : left hand, I hope you have one upon your right.” Serena Blandish, the beautiful but dumb darling who couldn't say “No,” is my fictional favorite for the moment. She reminds me very much of Ben Lolt’s moronic Swect Alice, who, as you will recall, wept with delight when you gave her a smile, and trembled at your frown, lf “Serena” is ever filmed, Lillian Gish would be ideal in the title réle. ECUADOR,” by S :DUCERS IN V. Sackville-West (Doran), is a brief booklet setting forth what hap- pened to a man who wore too many colored spectacles. It announces in the THIS IS Gop's Own CouNTRY There are 87,616 children under fifteen years of age ai work in mines, mills ani factories in the United States. LIFE: “ Life and _Letters opening paragraph that its protagonist was hanged, thereby securing the in- terest of the reader to the finish. A movement to suppress it may easily be expected from the manufacturers of beach glasses in assorted colors, for the psychology superinduced in Arthur Lomax by various shades got him into no end of trouble. (Perhaps I shouldn't say that, because, after all, he was hanged.) There are two morals to the tale: (1) If you happen to be in pt, try to stand the sun; (2) if you must have a seducer, by all means relegate him to Ecuador. A curious little book, and not half so interesting or important as “Knole,” its author's documentation on the ancient her ancestors in Kent, with its three hundred and. sixty-five rooms and seventeenth century banquets of thirty-three courses, the tabulated cost of which should give even the Queensborough Market venders pause. residence of “(CODED LIMERICKS,” by S. B. Dickson (Simon & Schuster), the latest contribution to the attempts to cash in on the activities incited by the (Continued on page 31) OFFICE EFFICIENCY comicbooks.com