Life, 1926-09-23 · page 17 of 40
Life — September 23, 1926 — page 17: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
The left cartoon illustrates Morris Bishop's poem "Culture of Travel"—a humorous complaint that returning European travelers bore people with endless tales of sights, architecture, and romantic mishaps (fist-fights in Paris bars, dead cats in Venice canals). The figures appear to be continental Europeans, possibly Venetian gondoliers, depicted in period dress. The right section, "Just Between Us Girls," presents a woman's bitter monologue about divorce. She defends her ex-husband's right to leave while attacking his new girlfriend Betty as "wild" and irresponsible. The satire critiques women's contradictory attitudes: demanding freedom while policing other women's behavior, and confiding in friends while remaining coldly silent to the husband himself. It's social commentary on female friendship dynamics and marital hypocrisy.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Culture of Travel QU! You are back from Europe, Mr. Green Tell me, what storied marvels met your What age-old spires and battlements that ri: Defying time? And what far-famed demesne Where destiny was made? What colored towns Hemming the southern sea in jewel-fringes? What ancient glass whose radiance still tinges Forgotten kings beneath forgotten crowns? Ah, you are back from Europe, Mr. Green! Tell us of what you've scen, ay, that you shall— You saw a fist-fight in a Paris bar, In Rome you saw a novel motor-car, And Venice? Why, in Venice you have seen A dead cat floating in the Grand Canal. Morris Bishop. “ he ‘had a perfect ‘RIGHT to d vorce her, ‘because I mean I think she always WAS frightfully WILD and everything and I mean she simply has I s ° blame because EVERYBODY warned her that she'd go too FAR and I mean it was only a question of TIME until he couldn't STAND it, that’s all) ANYWAYS, I think a man has a perfect RIGHT to divorce a girl when she acts the way BETTY did because I mean I think a certain AMOUNT of freedom is absolutely ‘ RIGHT, my dear, but I mean there simply you know, and I think she behaved VILE ACTUALLY do....I mean I'M one of th friends Betty has, ‘but I told her perfectly that I didn’t blame Henry a bit for wanting to divorce her because I mean I told her she'd behaved ABSO- LUTELY unreasonably, my dear, and she simply COULDN'T expect ANY husband to stand for that kind of thing INDEF- INITELY. Well, I mean, she was simply LIVID about it and said she thought I was her FRIEND and everything and that I'd turned AGAINST her all of a sudden and she simply COULDN'T understand it unless I was interested in HENRY lf! ACTUALLY, my dear, did you R hear of anything so absolutely ATTY in your LIFE? Well, I simply got right up without a WORD, my dear, and LEFT the house and I mean we CE. Because I mean it’s perfectly J I've always been frightfully FON D of Henry but she knows as well as I do, my dear, that he asked me to marry him LONG before he did her and I think for her to make such a perfectly POISON- OUS remark as that was the VILEST thing I've ever KNOWN, my dear, and I simply CAN’T understand her being JEALOUS of me after ALL th YEARS—I mean I ACTUALLY can't!” Lloyd Mayer. A Cancelled Contract LIENIST: I have examined your star, and find her perfectly normal. Movir Propucer (sadly): I feared as “iey, ALP! HERE'S A BLOKE’S NEVER SWUM THE CHANNEL.” much! And she was once a grand actress. comicbooks.com