Life, 1926-08-05 · page 15 of 41
Life — August 5, 1926 — page 15: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
**Top Cartoon: "A Vacation Nightmare"** This depicts a man named Smith whose anticipated vacation becomes a series of nightmares. The accompanying text describes his anxious dreams: struggling with mobs at ferry terminals, passing through tunnels of smoke, dreaming of poorly cooked food, and imagining himself as a "parboiled lobster" at the beach. The humor satirizes the common experience of vacation anxiety—the gap between expectations and reality. The broken-down car illustration reinforces the theme of travel disasters. **Lower Section: Comedy Bits** Brief joke entries titled "Left It All" and "A Jew's Harp" follow typical magazine humor conventions of the era, offering quick punchlines rather than narrative comedy. The page satirizes the American vacation experience and its frequent disappointments through relatable anxieties.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
WA TEN Pure: “MISTER, DO YOU THINK YOU CAN GET IT OUT?” “DON’T KNOW—IT LOOKS PRETTY BAD.” “WELL, IF YOU DON’T, CAN I HAVE IT?” A Vacation Nightmare HE night before his vacation was to begin, Smith Tiss a terrible nightmare. He dreamed of Herculean struggles with mobs in railway and ferry terminals, in the cars, on the trains —struggles from which he emerged a much-wilted victor, battered and bruised. He gasped and struggled as he dreamed of passing through long tunnels where the fumes of soft-coal smoke clutched his lungs and tweaked his eyelids with black, sooty fingers. He dreamed of arriy- ing, finally, at the sea- shore, and of being over- whelmed on his first day at the beach by a great fire-god which seared his flesh with all the torments of Hades and left him raw and sore and as red as a parboiled lobster. He dreamed of suffo- cating in his own bed; of struggling frantically against the oppression of heat he had come so many miles to escape. He be- held himself at the mer- cies of the refined ban- THE BATHTUB SINGER I8 ON HIS VACATION ditry which infested his hotel and by smile and gesture relieved him of his pelf. He dreamed of writhing in torment induced by poorly cooked foods consumed at the wrong hours. He saw himself, as the days passed, becoming a physical wreck in the very haven he had chosen as the spot to regain bodily health and vigor. Fagged and weary after his dream ordeal, Smith awakened carly on the first day of his vacation, hur- riedly packed his grips, and rushed away. He caught the train to the seashore. E, E. Garrison. Left It All REATHLESS HUNTER: I just met a big bear over in the woods. Guiwr: Did you give him both barrels? “Both barrels! I let him have the whole gun.” A SEN'S Harp—Abie's Irish Rose. comicbooks.com