Life, 1926-02-04 · page 16 of 40
Life — February 4, 1926 — page 16: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains winter-themed humor and social commentary. The main cartoon, "The Gay Nineties," depicts a horse-drawn sleigh racing at "8 Miles Per Hour" speed limit—a joke about the 1890s being an era of leisurely, slow travel before automobiles. The prose section "Winter's Grip" mocks the impracticalities of cold weather: icy milk bottles, coat damage, and other minor hardships that give pontificators opportunity to complain. One anecdote mentions "Larchemont" and rubbers (galoshes), suggesting upper-class urban inconveniences. "Night Life Thoughts" satirizes nightclub economics—charging four dollars admission plus a dollar for check service—making a working-class critique of how venues exploit patrons with hidden costs. The overall tone is gentle social satire targeting urban winter inconveniences and commercialism.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
\4 LIFE - Winter's Grip! ITTER weather brings us the coal strike, those beguiling n should neighbor's milk bottle, window displays of what the man-going-Sout wear, and a crust of ice atop. the and these are bad enough, God knows. But even more serious is the opportunity it affords the punctilious to say, Pardon my glove.” Can't the Pardon my eye! say we. Must this go on tabloid newspapers do thing about it? With a fceble hope of mitigating this nauseous practice, we offer a few equally sensible suggestions for use when friends or others are encountered: “Kindly overlook my last year’s hat—the new one’s at the cleaner’s being upholstered.” “Hope you'll excuse my rubbers, old man. Larchmont was a mess at 9:15 them off last week to greet a man in the street, and woke up in the hospital.” “Please don't judge me by this necktie. I simply got to thinking about other things when I put it on.” “Forgive this linoleum waistcoat at a One-Arm Charley.” I'm just in from lunch Stanley Jones. Night Life Thoughts N their tight blue coats and their loose gray pants, The butter-and-egg boys come to dance Four dollars a person just to get in, A dollar a throw for a snifter of gin. These days it takes money to rank as How do they do it on thirty a week? a sheik— D. R. S. THE GAY NINETIES g Eve THE RACE POR THE MAGNUM THE t of the Nineties. OF CHAMPAGNE OFFERED BY THE MANAGEMENT OF THE CASINO IN CENTRAL PARK TO ARRIVALS IN THE PIRST SLEIGH OF THE SEASON.