Life, 1925-11-05 · page 12 of 50
Life — November 5, 1925 — page 12: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This cartoon satirizes workplace desperation during what appears to be a period of labor unrest (the text references a miners' strike and the Bartenders' Union). **The Scene:** A working man at a doorway asks a well-dressed gentleman, "Will you need my corkscrew, sir?" — implying he's offering to sell his own tools due to poverty. **The Satire:** The joke mocks economic hardship so severe that workers resort to selling personal possessions. The "corkscrew" detail suggests the gentleman is a drinker, adding irony: while the wealthy enjoy leisure, workers desperately peddle basic tools. **Context:** This reflects Depression-era or post-war economic anxiety when labor strikes and unemployment made survival precarious for ordinary people.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
WING to the miners’ strike, it is announced, the public will have to use substitutes for the substitutes for coal it's been getting. Jt The Bartenders’ Union, numbering 27, 000 members, is still very much in existence, according to the American Suna eis Ce ee Federation of Labor, Also, it affords the most perfect living example of the closed shop—unless known there. you're JL The least Philadelphia could do to speed the departure of Gen. Smentey D. Butter would be to issue a sesquicen- THE TREND OF THE TIMES “WILL YOU NEED MY CORKSCREW, SIR?” tennial stamp to commemorate his first declaration of: “We have the boot- leggers on the run.” tL It is officially announced that the United States Treasury has an unusually large surplus. Write to your Congressman NOW. JL The American Booksellers’ Associat has instituted a special telegraphic ¢ livery service, but the ultimate will nc have been attained until they can se the best books to any desert island by radio. LL Incidentally, it would be an inestin boon to American literature if some of our novelists were compelled to res themselves to the confines of an letter. JL In spite of all the criticism that has been leveled against him, Secretary Wiravr is to be allowed to r post. He'll probably remain in office until he has gathered enough local color for a series of Navy stories for the kiddies. JL The various agitations in Washington have simmered down, and the only im- portant question in Army and Navy circles at present is: “Can you get me a couple of tickets to the game?” aL Close upon the heels of Apple Week comes Education Week, which, oddly enough, is as it was in the Garden of Eden. Logic “M Y dear, I think I shall spend the night at my sister's,” came his wife’s voice over the telephone. “Do you care?” “Not at all,” he replied, heartily. “Then I had better take the first trai home,” she decided. OWADAYS a free country may be defined as one in which the capital crime is to the capital punishment as the number of authorized voters is to those who actually vote. comicbooks.com