Life, 1925-10-15 · page 15 of 36
Life — October 15, 1925 — page 15: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains three distinct satirical pieces: 1. **"Ballade of Questioning"**: A poem mocking the existential anxieties of working-class laborers—the "struggle and worry and toil" from nine to six daily—questioning life's purpose. The refrain "What's to become of us all?" expresses working-class despair. 2. **"The Best Foot Foremost"**: A brief joke where a daughter claims her young suitor owns "a whole front foot in Miami"—satirizing the 1920s Florida real estate boom and nouveau riche pretension about property ownership. 3. **"Breaking It Gently"**: A theater scene where a casting director rejects an actor for a Rip Van Winkle role, telling him to return "when you've grown a gray beard four feet long"—mocking unrealistic theatrical demands and age discrimination in casting. The illustrations use exaggerated line work typical of early 20th-century satirical cartooning.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Ballade of Questioning TRUGGLE and worry and toil, Slaving with pens and with picks, Bound in this temporal coil, Daily from nine until six; Watching the clock as it ticks Summer and winter and fall— This is the question that prick: What's to become of us all? Do we return from the soil? Or with it endlessly mix? Boy—page Sir A. Conan Doyle; Better still—Dorothy Dix. Trusting to radio tricks, Think we'll hear Gabriel's call? Or will we pick up the Styx? What's to become of us all? Life is a tinsel and foil, Life is a Terrible Fix. Some play according to Hoyle, Others sling mud and throw bricks. Scrapping and yapping like hicks On this terrestrial ball, Plutocrats, clerks, Bolsheviks— What's to become of us all? FINate Prince, I am getting prolix; This is the end of my stall: I don’t care two chorus kicks What's to become of us all! Max Lief. OPTIMISTIC PEDESTRIAN (ofter being run over by car): Well, it might have been worse. He might have stopped on me to park. BREAKING IT GENTLY Casting Director: ves, YoU CAN HAVE THE PART OF Rip Van Winkle. “MY BOY, YOU'VE GOT TO PART WITH SIX MOLARS. THAT BRIDGE GOES, AND YOU NEED FOUR FILLINGS AND A NEW PLATE.” “poctor, YOU SAID A MOUTHFUL.” The Best Foot Foremost FATHER: Has that young man of yours any money or any prospects? Davcuter: Why, Father, of course he has! He owns a whole front foot in Miami BUT REMEMBER, WE'RE STICKLERS FOR REALISM HERE, DROP ‘ROUND AGAIN WHEN YOU'VE GROWN A GRAY BEARD FOUR FEET LONG. comicbooks.com