Life, 1925-10-22 · page 17 of 74
Life — October 22, 1925 — page 17: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page from *Life* magazine contains humorous business letters (Forms 688, 160, and 211) mocking overwrought commercial correspondence and business pretension. The letters satirize verbose, flowery language in routine business matters—someone asking for a "flaming yard in width and in color" of fabric, and disputes over tiny bolts and nuts between companies. The accompanying cartoons illustrate everyday social absurdities. One sketch shows children playing outdoors with the caption "YUH AIN'T DONE RIGHT BY OUR NELL," suggesting parental scolding. The poem "It's Just Killing" (by Arthur L. Lippmann) darkly jokes about funeral practices and increasing alcohol consumption, reflecting early 20th-century social concerns about drinking and mortality customs. The satire targets both bureaucratic verbosity and contemporary social anxieties.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Your Esteemed Favor (The old-fashioned business letter is replaced by one of better literary item.) Michael Arlen Company, being ity. "— Magazine mt OO8—.Afte fhe Imperial Bur Sandusky, Ohiv. Deve Sirs li you have, and being the kind of firm which we know you to be, you have, bunting, bunting, I full flaunting yard in width and in color like the flaming poppies that glow in the formless dreams of a long fever, They must, at the latest, reach us by Friday, say, us, I beg of you, six bolts. therefore immediate attention, sil vous + will mean much, how much, | can never say, nor you ever know. But that is as it may be truly Eureka Stores. S. Mannheimer. yours, Porm 16B—After Aldous Huxley Wilkins Gadget Compa Crosse, Wisconsin. I hear with considerable impatience that you are not inclined to accept my for a license to manufacture gad- ts under your patents. This ridic- us remnant of medievalism smacks hway robbery under the thread- cloak of principle. siness,” once said’ Sigismondo Mala- “is business,” and a world full fools have believed him just as they © believed La Fontaine and half of parts of Euclid. not business hopenhaner and t at least you have been so Debbie JS SO STUPID. First WHAT'S Second Debbie: Grorcr SECRET AND THEN HE WENT AROUND TELLING EVERY ONE WE jejune as to pretend to any morality in the transact So much is refresh- ing, and would promise well for our future not for the consummate which the entire transaction has invested me. were it with agreement boredom Yours truly, Axet. OLson. Form 2UN—After Gertrude Stein Zenith Hardware ro, Illinois. GENTLEMEN = Last Wednesday it was Wednesday and many another Wednesday we that Company, THE TROUBLE, JANET? WE AGREED TO KEEP OUR ENGAGEMENT A WEREN'T ENGAGED, is you and T or Land you and Tam you and we are we sent and we sent and Wednesday order and more little orders ordering was sent an order is an nuts for bolts and why are bolts and nuts for bolts and vice versa for nuts we have not received nor are re- are ceived the little nuts and for bolts will kindly tracingly you and those who are and obl us for us and we yours bligingly trace and nuts are nuts, trace for us and we are Respectfully yours, Porretoorr Stove Company, Richard 1. Greene, It's Just Killing folks expire on a funeral pyre. f battle. me will depart with valiant heart, And some like driven cattle. And some will hope and others grope And some on the field In mankind's age-old blindness— But here's how J prefer to die: Just kill me, please, with kindness! Some people term a deadly germ Just splendid for deceasing, While those unsponso booze Are constantly increasing. A bit of lead still at the head Of mortuary bliss is, But may they fit in m “She smothered him with kisses who choose y obit. : “YUH AIN’T DONE RIGHT BY OUR NELL.” Arthur L. Lippmann comicbooks.com