Life, 1925-09-24 · page 9 of 41
Life — September 24, 1925 — page 9: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a humorous sketch about a wealthy traveler returning from abroad with exaggerated travel stories. The comedy hinges on the traveler's grandiose claims: he boasts of encountering exotic animals (elephants, camels) and a famous general named Smuts in Africa, but admits he's actually unfamiliar with these experiences and may have confused details. The main cartoon below depicts a car full of tourists in a scenic mountain landscape, with the caption "I'LL BETCHA THOSE WOODS ARE FULL OF PEDESTRIANS!" This satirizes urban Americans' disconnection from nature—they assume forests contain pedestrians like city streets, revealing their metropolitan ignorance of the wilderness they're visiting.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
- LIFE = A Brief History of the Human Race scene is laid in Buckingham , England, at a considerable time in the future. The doorbell rings.) LEEN MARY: Land o' Goshen! Who kin that be? Why, it’s after ten o'clock! Tehk! Tehk! (She goes door.) DAVE! Prince or Wates: Howdy, Pa. Kixe Georce: Howdy, son. Where you been all this time? xce: Oh, hikin’ round. South America—. Qveen: Land o° the livin’! didn't you drop us a line? Prince: Well, I sort of thought mayle you'd sce some of the squibs the (Proudly.) Got them. to th Hello, Ma. Africa— Why papers had about me. serap-book full of famous, Pa. a regular Gettin’ A Noted Traveler Retums Kine: I swan! I certainly do swan! Prince (a trifle deprecatingly): "Course, I didn't walk all the way. Found folks mighty kind. Automo- biles, elephants, camels Queen (anxiously): hope, Dave? Prince (changing subject): Nothin’ like travel to broaden a fellow. An’ say, Ma, the world’s a small place after all. Who you think I met in Africa? Smuts! I saw this fellow, and I says to myself, “That man’s face is cer- tainly familiar, but durned if I can place him.” And then it come over me all of a sudden, General Smuts! So [ go up to him, and what think? He reckernized me right away! No hosses, 1 Kine: I vum! I absolutely vum! Pri So nothin’ would do but he Vol. II: 5 B.C. must crank up his car and take me all around, callin’ on the neighbors. So then I caught a boat to South —— Qurexn: My stars! What em I thinkin’ of ? Dave, you musty be fam- ished! Hulda’s gone to bed, 0’ course, but you come right out in the kitchen and I'll fix you up a cold snack. (They leave. King George tiptoes to the door and closes it. He drat a frayed cigar from his pocket, moist- ens the wrapper and lights it, with a sigh of satisfaction, carefully blowing the smoke out of th 1 drop- fing the ashes in the stove.) Tip Bliss. indow, a IGN in. Railroad Station—“When in doubt consult the Uninformed At- tendants.” “V'LL BETCHA THOSE WOORS ARC FULL OF PEDESTRIANS!” comicbooks.com