Life, 1926-09-16 · page 16 of 40
Life — September 16, 1926 — page 16: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
**Main Cartoon: "The Gay Nineties"** This illustration depicts a group of well-dressed men and women in what appears to be an early 1900s indoor venue, with one woman prominently displaying a sign reading "The Bowery." The caption quotes concerns about the Bowery's reputation ("They say such things and they do such things / On the Bowery! the Bowery! / I'll never go there any more!"). The satire likely mocks middle-class anxiety about visiting or associating with the Bowery, a notorious working-class neighborhood in New York known for vice and crime. **"An Unfailing Sign" & "Too Many Crises"** These brief humor pieces reference automobile culture (cars being parked, chassis mentioned) and campus life (a student and professor), typical light satirical content of the era mocking contemporary manners and social situations.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
The Gay Nineties “The Bowery, the Bowery! They say such things and they do such things On the Bowery! the Bowery! I'll never go there any more!” “T WAS able to park within a block of my home last night for the first time this summer, so I suppose the prep schools and colleges are opening. he speaker was Grover Cleveland Smith, President of the First, Second and Third National Bank of Jonesville, and father of the Smith girls. Every afternoon and evening sin ion began so many college cars have been lined up at my curb that until they got used to it the neighbors thought we were An Unfailing Sign remodeling the house. At first glance a college student’s car docs look something like a carpenter's, only rougher. “I love my daughters and want to sce them happy, but I hate to sce our place looking like a used-car market. When the boys would leave in the evening it sounded like cross- ing the line with Pershing. What makes me mad is that my girls will ride on a bare chassis and be per- fectly happy, provided it is steered by rig! one a pair of wide pants from the college; but let me fail to have of our limousines polished or let me leave a dent in a fender twenty- four hours and they'll walk.” McCready Huston. Too Many Crises TUDENT: Said he'd kick us out of class, did he? What does that prof. think he’s running here, the French Cabinet? comicbooks.com