Life, 1925-12-03 · page 81 of 84
Life — December 3, 1925 — page 81: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page combines satirical commentary with period advertising. The main satirical piece, "Heroic Measures" by Tid Bliss, mocks the "Etiquette Authority"—a rigid, uptight character suffering modern malaise (insomnia, marital discord). A specialist prescribes radical life change: "be a regular devil!" The joke's punchline: the Authority's idea of rebellion is jammed napkin usage and loudly ordering *two* chicken salads at a fancy restaurant. This satirizes how even those attempting to break social conventions remain enslaved to etiquette's trivialities. The humor hinges on the gap between genuine transformation and superficial rule-breaking. The opening "From a Club Chair" section offers wry observations about how fiction avoids real life's improbabilities, and how mundane losses (restaurant closures) matter more emotionally than spiritual decline—reflective of 1920s-era cynicism. The page also contains period advertisements for Rubberset shaving brushes and Liquid Arvon dandruff treatment, typical of Life's revenue model.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
From a Club Chair ICTION always impresses me as being untrue to life because it avoids the improbabilities so carefully. eee We are still far from the spiritual. More real sentiment is stirred by the closing of a famous restaurant than by the decay of a celebrated church. eee The most tragic event in one’s exis- tence? Well, it is either the discovery that there is no Santa Claus, or the realization that it does not pay to draw to an inside straight. eee The wisdom of our elders appears to have consisted in having done what we do before we did it. eee The franker school of biography is reconciling us to the statues in our parks. The more we read of our heroes, the easier it is for us to be- lieve that they deserved no better sculpture. James K. McGuinness. Heroic Measures HE Etiquette Authority was all upset. To his jaundiced eye the en- tire world was wrong. He was troubled with insomnia; food disagreed with him; the wife of his bosom had left him with the warning that she would not return until his disposition im- proved, Something radical had to be done, he realized. He sought the advice of an eminent. specialist. “You have gone stale,” the ¢. s. told him. “Change the whole order of your life. Get out of the rut. Go out ALBRIGHT RUBBERSET SHAVING BRUSH Every Brist EVERLASTING! inaGrip of Vulcanized Hard Rubber Even the most lux- uriant beard turns gray with oa But the flight of does msc to to impair tl 4 cus eficiency of the ALBRIGHT RUBBERSET Shaving Brush. The average life of a i CHT ) 2510825% | Sterilized-Guaranteed MFG BY RUBBERSETCO NEWARK.N.J. the most skillful blend in cigarette history fo) and do the sort of thing that your sup- pressed desires have been urging you to do these many years.” A light almost of madness glowed in the eyes of the Etiquette Authorit; “You mean it, doctor?” he aske “T certainly do, my boy. Cast aside everything. To put it crudely, be a regular devil!” With a maniacal scream, the Eti- quette Authority rushed from the spe- cialist’s office. Directly across the strect gleamed the bright lights of a fashionable restaurant. Impeccably garbed men and women sat at the tables. The Etiquette Authority hurled him- self into a chair and _ feverishly jammed the napkin inside his collar. “Bring me,” he bellowed to the waiter, in a voice that resounded throughout the entire establishment, “bring me TWO orders of chicken salad!” Tid Bliss. A Sure Way to End Dandruff There is one sure way that never fails to remove dandruff completely, and that is to dissolve it. Then you destroy it entirely. To do this, just apply a little Liquid Arvon at night before retiring; use enough to moisten the scalp and rub it in gently with the finger ti By morning, most if not of your dandruff will be gone, and ee, or threo more applications will completely dis- solve and entirely destroy every single sign and trace of it, no matter how much dandruff you may hav You will find, too, that all itching of the scalp will stop instantly, and your hair will be lustrous, glossy, ‘silky and soft, andlook and feel ahundred times better. ‘You can get Liquid Arvon at any drag store and a four ounce bottle is all you will need. This simple remedy bas never been known to fail, LIQUID ARVON ,. comicbooks.com