Life, 1925-11-19 · page 25 of 40
Life — November 19, 1925 — page 25: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains three distinct satirical pieces: **"Check!"** - A poem mocking the common dilemma of choosing between wealth and wit. A woman must decide between "Percival" (rich but dull) and "Pat" (charming but broke). The satire targets both wealthy men lacking intellect and the mercenary calculations of romance, ultimately resolving that she has her own income—a progressive joke about female financial independence for the era. **"Paradox"** - Satirizes the paradox of modern speed. Around 1900, people traveled slowly but reached death eventually; now they travel at 100-200 mph yet still take fifty years to die. The moral mocks society's obsession with speed and efficiency—we rush constantly but achieve no real time savings. **The comic strips** mock literary pretension ("Shakespeare") and appear to feature ethnic stereotyping common to the period (the "Abie Shylock" title references Jewish stereotypes). The overall theme: satirizing social vanity, economic inequality, and the gap between modern aspirations and actual human progress.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Check! H, Percival has gold to spare, A limousine and lots of swank. Head waiters know him everywhere; He almost owns the Central bank. But very little does he know Of how to turn a pretty phrase. His mind is rather dull and slow, And he fatigues me with his praise. Now Pat, the dear, has wit enough; I love to hear him flatter me. He writes the most delightful stuff, 3ut not a single cent has he. Ai | Oh, Percival would pay my bills, And Pat would pay me compliments. I might prefer receipts to thrills lf I were blessed with business sense. I may as well confess I'm not, And so my heart is Pat's alone. Well, anyway, thank God, I've got An ample income of my own. Lois Whitcomb, Paradox ACK about 1900 man rushed along on horseback or in horseless car- es at five or ten miles an hour. And thirty-odd years he reached his final destination—the grave. Nowadays by auto and aeroplane > man dashes along at one to two hun- SS ~ dred miles an hour, But it takes him, EY . on an average, about fifty years to reach MWe Me: . ECEQ_’ his final destination—the grave. WAR \ WN S Moral: What's the use of hurrying? + WLW. The Neglected One: Gee! YT CERTAINLY PAYS TO SPEND YOUR SUMMERS ON AN ICE-WAGON. M® BUCKNER’S agents, about to institute padlock proceedings . oe against thirty restaurants, obtained evi- The Campaign Good Vision it is reported, by “overhearing” URTON: Burlington has written ATHER: Well, what did you see Indicating Kip- another short story. at the football game? was wrong when he said: “You can Stacey: How do you know? Daucnuter: Oh, I saw Ethel’s new talk o’ gin and beer when you're quar- Burton: He bought five dollars’ furs and Tommy Dudd’s second wife tered safe out ‘ere.” worth of stamps to-day. and a darling coat trimmed with beaver. Le THE COMIC STRIP SHAKESPEARE NO. 1—ABIE SHYLOCK, THE AGENT comicbooks.com