Life, 1926-05-20 · page 30 of 44
Life — May 20, 1926 — page 30: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a satirical humor page from *Life* magazine featuring short comedic anecdotes and cartoons mocking contemporary social follies. Key items include: **"Mental Cruelty"**: A jest about someone sending the entire text of *Hamlet* written in Welsh through the mail—absurd because it's impractical and pointless. **"The Horseless Age Arrives at Last"**: A girl asks her date if he owns a used car; he says no. The joke plays on 1920s anxiety about automobile ownership as a status symbol for courting. **"Where Was Barnum?"**: References P.T. Barnum (famous showman), suggesting someone is as gullible as Barnum's audiences. **"Beating the Railroad Rates"** (large cartoon): Shows people living in a tilted house to avoid train fares—visual satire of penny-pinching absurdity. **Other items** mock Prohibition-era drinking, Harvard drinking culture, and absurd economic hardship humor during what appears to be the Great Depression era. The overall tone ridicules foolish contemporary behaviors and social pretensions.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
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