Life, 1925-12-25 · page 22 of 37
Life — December 25, 1925 — page 22: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains early 20th-century American satirical humor targeting social pretension and hypocrisy. **"Christmas Eve Thoughts"** mocks puritanical moralists (the "Society for the Purification of Pleasure") who condemn harmless pleasures like dancing and laughter as sinful, while imposing joyless restrictions on others. **"New Year Resolutions"** satirizes urbane irritations: pretentious movie-goers, obsequious restaurant service, wealthy social climbers, rejecting editors, and the universal awkwardness of unwanted gifts. **"How Did They Get By?"** points out that historical figures succeeded without modern advertising, censorship boards, or magazine self-promotion—implying contemporary society over-relies on marketing and media manipulation. **"The Human Way"** depicts marital compromise through a cartoon where a husband accepts doing dishes, satirizing changing domestic expectations. The overall tone criticizes social snobbery, commercialism, and rigid moralism while celebrating ordinary human resilience and humor.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
* LIFE = "TWAS THE KNIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS New Year Resolutions I WILL try not to chortle audibly at the purple patches in the movies, thus annoying simpler and happier natures. I will not encourage my radio set to squeal during propa- ganda speeches, and I will try not to swing my foot during dull sermons, I will try to respect worthy citizens who admire certain popular novels, and I will listen with smiling patience when friends regale me with the details of ham movic plots. When affluent tippers enter the restaurant last and get served first, I will refrain from holding over them the thought of acute indigestion. I will try to feel pleasant when wealthy acquaintances announce their departure for the South. I will try to think calmly of editors who return December manuscripts with “Merry Christmas” seals on the envelopes. I will cultivate gratitude toward benevolent friends who send me tickets to arid culture courses. I will try to learn to use the dial telephone. I will strive to keep on loving the person who always gives me something I don’t want at a time when I can't use it, and thereby qualifies himself to demand something I do want at a time when I need it most. I will build up an immunity from bridge, limerick con- tests, and discussions on what ails the world. Corinne Rockwell Swain. Indispensable to Success was little Filbert’s music hour and he was toiling over “The Marseillaise.’ “Oh, Mama,” he cried, “I'll never learn to play this!” “But you must, dear,” responded Mama, “That is, if you ever expect to grow up and be an organist in a movie.” New to Her E: Honestly, now, do you women like egotistical men as well as the other kind? Sue: What other kind? Christmas Eve Thoughts of the President of the Society for the Purification of Pleasure GERISIMAS: is pagan; Yule is sinful; Laughter is coarse and smiles are wrong; Dancing is dismal; music, dinful; Nothing is right that I call wrong. Evil is Man. His son and daughter Burn with desires that are not nice; Give him a case of pure spring water; Give her a tract of sound advice. Elias Lieberman, How Did They Get By ? ICHARD THE LION-HEARTED never had a chance to control traffic. Salome lived before the days of bathing beauty contests Columbus discovered America without being able to sel! a single lot in it. Michel Angelo received no thousand-dollar commissions for pretty girl magazine-covers. Shakespeare never got the benefit of censor advertising for his sex plays. Abraham Lincoln was never asked to write an article on success for the American Magazine, IK. The Human Way And let's take turns washing the dishes. Fixst Huspanp: All right, my dear; you wash them in “GOSH, WILL HE ever GET THROUGH TAKING OFF HIS SHOES?” comicbooks.com