Life, 1926-09-23 · page 27 of 40
Life — September 23, 1926 — page 27: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
**Top Cartoon:** Two shabby men on a street corner illustrate economic hardship during what appears to be the Great Depression era. One holds a sign advertising "Eat at the Grandma Lunch" for 50 cents; the other displays a sign about "The Franc has Fallen Again." The caption mocks working-class men's lack of financial literacy—they can't manage money despite exposure to economic news. The satire targets the gap between awareness of market collapse and personal poverty. **"Great on Figures":** A joke about selective memory. A man boasts he can memorize anything and recites stock market figures perfectly (General Motors, North American, Steel prices). When asked his own car's license number, he's completely blank. The satire skewers people obsessed with stocks and market data while remaining oblivious to mundane personal details—a critique of 1920s-era investment culture and misplaced priorities. Both pieces satirize American attitudes toward money and finance during the pre-Depression period.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Rhymed Reviews O Genteel Lady ! By Esther Forbes Houghton Mifflin Co. WEET LANICE, — pardon, S Miss Bardeen,— Was held as fair and bright a lady As ever tripped in crinoline When gallants wore their hair pomady. She came to edit, write and draw Among the Boston literati Where Emerson was held in awe By all the true illuminati. Through social standing, wealth or She won a job before she knew it. They climb so easily in books! 1d love to learn just how. they do it. But Captain Jones, the season's vogue, Of pride and peace of mind bereft her; The fascinating English rogue So briefly loved, so quickly left her. Abroad, she met the Tennysons (Though not her Captain gay and shifty) And all the great, inspiring ones Who flourished circa 1850. A suitor prim, a wooer grand She blighted, acting somewhat fliply, But hy-and-by bestowed her hand On se and kind Professor Ripley. These mawkish folk of yesteryear! To show them up is quite the fashion What prigs they seem, how insin- cere, . Bedraping life, ignoring passion! Their bards and scribes are so obtuse And dull,—or all but two or three However did such prudes produce The clear-eyed realists that we Arthur Guiterman. “Ty! Soa great life,” remarked the ambulist, f you don't “THAT'S THE TROUB: PRETEND WE AREN'T ON OUR PRETEND WE'RE FOR A DIVORCE. HONEYMOON. E Comes, DINNER DOF E THE FRANC MAS FALLEN AGAIN.” WITH THEM FURRINERS—THEY AIN'T GOT Great on Figures “QELL me a memory course! Why, ‘+ IT can remember anything.” “Do you follow the market? Well, what was General Motors’ high and low yesterday? “Two hundred eight and a half and two hundred seven.” “Correct. And North American?” fty-four and five-eighths and our and a quarter.” Right. How about Steel?’ “One forty-eight and an eighth and one forty-seven and a half. My memory is above the average.” “So it seems, By the way, what is the license number of your car?” “Sixty-eight thousand, two hun- dred—no, it’s eighty-six thousand, two hundred—no, that's not it, either. I'm hanged if I know.” “You lose. Here's the dotted line.” Bill Sykes. 7 HAT'S become of the tat- tooed beauty?” “She had her face lifted and it threw all her pictures out of focus.” comicbooks.com