Life, 1926-05-13 · page 19 of 52
Life — May 13, 1926 — page 19: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains satirical "Lessons in Civics" mocking municipal inefficiency. The Street-Cleaning Department Q&A exposes a circular system: trash gets picked up into cans, then trucks, but the trucks dump waste back onto windy streets—undoing the work. The satire's point: the department perpetuates its own job by creating the mess it's meant to solve. The cynical final answer suggests voters tolerate this because they don't care enough to demand better. Below, "Too Near Home" jokes about an Advertising Club prize for the best lie. A young reporter asks if newspapers can compete; allowed to enter, he simply thanks them and wins—implying newspapers are professional liars, a jab at press credibility. "Epidemic" is a brief dialogue where a worried father mentions "the car" as his son's affliction, satirizing the new automobile craze's hold on young people.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Lessons in Civics The Street-Cleaning Department What is the Street-Cleaning Department for * A. To clean the street Q. Why, then, are the streets not clean? A. Well, we are all Rome was not built 1 a day all the great democratic experiment in America is still in it Q. What will be done with all this paper that litters the st A. It will be picked up and put into faney cans Q. What will be A. They will be belonging to the Street-Cleaning De we with the cans ptied inte a truck partment, until it is full of waste paper. Q. What will the truck do when it is full of waste paper A. It will drive merrily up and down e windiest street until as much as Mle of the waste paper has blown ain, Q. What is the idea of this A. Well, if you made yc picking up paper, you’ we living by be sure there would always be paper to pick up, wouldn't you? ut could not the general public on to provide waste paper row as well as to-day? A. Well, maybe, but if your job de pended on it you w t take any chances either. Q. But in tl a Street-Cleaning Departme A. Voters n t case why do we have t live Too Near Home HE Advertising Club had varied its weekly to the pers cheon by offering a prize present who could tell the best lie. Several members did their best. Then a young rep asked if the newspaper m a right to compete. The graciou: dent jovially replied, “Certa young man said, “Thank you for a very good luncheon,” and sat down He did not get the prize Epidemic WARD: I'm sort of worried about A. — my boy Nerv: What has he? 0 has cra ' ) sie ; Wann: The car! comicbooks.com