Life, 1926-07-22 · page 7 of 37
Life — July 22, 1926 — page 7: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains three separate pieces of satire: 1. **"The Saving 'Old-Ironsides' Habit"**: A humorous article mocking the recurring campaign to preserve the USS Constitution ("Old Ironsides"), noting it's saved every few years from destruction. The cartoon shows a man psychoanalyzing another, with the caption suggesting obsessive behavior over the ship's preservation. 2. **"Tiddledywinks!"**: A short satirical piece about weather forecasting, mocking meteorologists' inability to predict conditions accurately. 3. **"What to Do with the Billboards"**: A cartoon illustration (bottom) showing billboards along a waterway, apparently satirizing advertising's intrusion into natural landscapes and public spaces. The overall tone is light political/social commentary typical of *Life* magazine's satirical style.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
The Saving-“Old-Iron- sides” Habit ; annual campaign to “Save Nd Ironsides’” is on again. very few years this ancient te i ved from some mysteri- ous destruction, school children a Jathered up into a foam of patriotic excitement in which they bring pen- nics from their banks to aid in the crisis, speeches are made and ban- ners unfurled, and everybody sinks back with a sigh of relief. “Old Ironsides” has been saved again! And yet it hardly scems more than a couple of before the cry up aga The enemy!” and bang! a shot whistles across the bows of the famous ship. Then it's ‘Old Tronsides,’ boys!" and the whole thing begins all over again. Oliver Wendell Holmes, — who aided the first “Save ‘Old Iron- campaign by writing, “Ay, tear her tattered ensign down!” must smile a rather wan smile as he realizes that all that he did was save “Old Ironsides” for the fiseal year 1887-8 and that ever since then a Saving Committee has been kept busy night and day planning future campaigns. They say that the 1930 campaign is going to be the biggest and best yet. What are these malign forces that seem so persistent in their plots to wreck the good ship “Con- stitution”? Sometimes it is an un- tal Government that threat- ens to junk the whole thing. At other times it is the forces of Nature, which seem to wait until our backs are turned after a money-raising campaign and then jump at the poor old sea-dog as she lies in safety at Charlestown and bid fair to tear her limb from limb. Whatever it is that we are cdn- stantly fighting off, would it not be possible to raise enough money at one crack to keep “Old Ironsides” afloat forever? We have a national sur- plus of $390,000,000. Couldn't we just settle this whole thing once and for all by devoting, let us say, half of that to secing that no more harm ever comes to this precious relic? Having saved her three times, and won three legs on the trophy, might we not be entitled to permanent pos- session of it? Or has the fact that there is a sides’ ” sentime = She: ou, IACK—1T WAS $0 DEAR OF YOU TO LET ME PSYCHOANALY: 1 GoT such A THRILL ovT oF IT. YOUR REACTIONS are all THANKS so MucH! movie entitled “Old Ironsides” in preparation anything to do with what James Russell Lowell called “The Present Crisis”? Robert Benchley. Tiddledywinks ! HE Weather Man cold,” and it’s hot; Says he, “Be hot,” and it freezes; He tells the weather just what to do, And the weather does as it pleases. “Be says, Advertising What? M 4642 NES that are made up mostly of advertising should pay a higher rate of postage. Let the Congressional Record head the list! OR the first time, Americans are showing interest in the words of he Star-Spangled Banner” — some one having attempted to pro- hibit the singing of it. WHAT TO DO WITH THE BILLBOARDS comicbooks.com