Life — December 3, 1925 — page 22: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

**Top cartoon:** "Mr. Common People" confronts four fat, top-hatted wealthy men wearing sashes labeled with trusts (monopolies). The fat boy warns that if these old friends (the trusts) don't unite, they'll become "mergers now"—satirizing how large corporations were consolidating power through mergers to maintain control. **Bottom cartoon:** "Flaming Youth" shows a young boy asking a pharmacist for gin ingredients (juniper oil), claiming he's making it for Christmas. This mocks Prohibition-era youth obtaining alcohol illegally through seemingly innocent requests. The humor targets both young people's lawlessness and adults' complicity in circumventing alcohol bans. Both cartoons critique social problems: unchecked corporate power and widespread Prohibition defiance.