Life, 1926-03-18 · page 10 of 44
Life — March 18, 1926 — page 10: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains literary humor and light satire rather than political cartoons. The central illustration shows two figures (appears to be a mother and son or family members) reading correspondence together indoors. The content includes three humorous pieces: "A Determination" (a poem about insects in the American South), "Thirty Years of Repartee" (dialogue featuring characters named Dolly and Skidoo with period slang), and "The Easiest Way" (satirizing Wyoming residents' petition for beer, suggesting buying it directly rather than petitioning). "The Skeptic" presents brief comic dialogue between newspaper characters discussing telegraph business between Miami and New York. The satire targets everyday American life—family communication, regional quirks, bureaucratic inefficiency—rather than major political figures or events. The humor relies on wordplay and situational comedy typical of early 20th-century American magazines.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
SO CHEERFUL “MOTHER, I JUST GOT THE LOVELIEST LETTER FROM LOU.” “LOU “oul WHAT'S THE MATTER?” “NOTHING'S THE MATTER, SHE JUST GIVES ALL THE FAMILY NEWS, SHE SAYS THAT ETTA——" “WHAT DOES SHE SAY IN THE LETTER?” “UM TELLING YOU! SHE SAYS THAT ETTA’S JUST COME OUT OF THE HOSPITAL FROM AN OPERATION, THEY HAD TO TAKE SEVEN STITCHES! NAN AND IRV HAVE SEPARATED —HE WANTS A DIVORCE AND SHE WON'T GIVE IT TO HIM, LITTLE MAY'S VACCINATION DIDN'T TAKE HORACE HAS LOST HIS JOB AGAIN AND UNCLE. BEN’S TRYING TO GET HIM ONE THIS TIME, THE WATER PIPE IN THE BATHROOM BURST AND THE DINING- ROOM CEILING FELL IN. SARAH WHITCOMB DIED AT LAST—WAS BURIED WEDNESDAY, NO- BODY WE KNEW WAS AT THE FUNERAL EXCEPT KATE PURDY, AND SHE'S HAD TO HAVE ALL HER TEETH PULLED, SHE MET PAULA TYSON AND THEY'VE LOST ALL THEIR MONE OLD ED CLOSSEN WAS ARRESTED FOR BOOTLEGGINGC——” DOES SHE SAY HOW MILLIE’s STUMMICK 1S? “YES, SHE'S Got TO ANOTHER pocTor Now!" “OW, WHAT A NICE LETTER!” The Easiest Way PETITION for beer and light wines from sixteen hundred resi- dents of Wyoming was read to the Senate the other day by Senator Ken- drick. Why not, instead of petitioning for it, just buy it? YES, LOU ALWAYS DID WRITE A GOOD LETTER.” The Skeptic ARRY = (reading —_ newspaper): Miami, Florida, now does a tele- graph business next to New York and Chicago. Barry: I see. Telegraphing home for more money, eh? A Determination [VE heard there's never any drouth Of bugs down in the sunny South. They crawl, they creep, they leap, they fly, In buggy unanimity. The spider and the scorpion speed Along with roach and centipede, While jigger and mosquito make Life an eternal itch or ache. Yet when T wade through sloughs of slush Of the consistency of mush, And hear the radiator wheeze As though afilicted with disease, And feel the furtive cold steal in And seize my foot or nip my shin, I think I'll pack my rags and rugs And go and dwell among the bugs! Clinton. Scollord, Thirty Years of Repartee In the Gay Nineties “QO as soon as he sees that the little red devil is busted down, he stops and takes a look. ‘Rubberneck, stretch it, throw it up and ketch it,’ I says. ‘Get a horse,’ he yells. ‘Twenty-three!’ I comes right back at him. ‘Skidoo! I yells. ‘Nit!’ he says. ‘Hullabaloo- ballim-ballam, smelly pork and rotten ham,’ I tells him. ‘Good-by, Dolly, I must leave you,’ he informs me, sar- castic-like. ‘Good riddance to bad rub- bish,’ I calls after him. Gee, but it was funny “You gotta peach of a line there, kid. You certainly oughto go on the stage.” In the, as Some Tell Us, enties can't get the super-het to manipulating, so he creaks, ‘As a wire- lesser you're a swell glass-blower, handsome.’ So I says, ‘So's your old man.’ So he snaps, ‘Tell that to your Uncle Benny.’ So I gives it to him, ‘Tell it to your Aunt Maria.’ ‘You're a heavy sugar papa, ain't you?’ he yodels. ‘Sure,’ I checks him, ‘if you're a red hot mama.’ With that he sinks like a anchor. ‘Outa my life like a light,’ I toodles after him. Gee, but it was funny “You gotta peach of a line there, kid. You certainly oughto go on the stage.” n Gayer Moral The stage has certainly lost some great humor in its time. Or has it? Tip Bliss. ; 1 comicbooks.com }