Life, 1926-10-21 · page 9 of 44
Life — October 21, 1926 — page 9: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains three distinct satirical pieces: 1. **"Automobiles Are the Greatest Curse of Civilization"** (top cartoon): Two men discuss payment obligations, suggesting cars create financial hardship for owners. 2. **"Football"** (middle section): A satirical prediction that Harvard will defeat Yale and discusses absurd consequences—players becoming incapacitated, newspapers printing sensational headlines ("Second Red Orange Flashes Across Horizon"), and young men being permanently disabled as "bond salesmen." 3. **"Drifting with the Tied"** and **"Flopsy"** (bottom): Humorous anecdotes about infidelity and character observations. The satire mocks early 1920s American anxieties: automobile debt, college football's excessive hype, and romantic entanglements. The football section particularly ridicules how seriously Americans took sports and the media's sensationalism around games.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Liffe Suggested Gifts for Some of Our Celebrities ‘O David Belasco, a dozen fresh clerical collars and a realistic painting of a harem interior. To John Held, Jr., a dressmaker’s dummy without legs. To Jack Dempsey, a neatly lettered desk motto, “Your nose knows.” To ex-Mayor Hylan of New York, a copy of “Look- ing Backward” bound in thick calf. “Big Bill” Tilden, some French lace; we almost wrote “lacing. To John S. Sumner, a desk paper weight, replica of the three inhibited monkeys, § No Evil, Hear No Speak No Evil. To Andrew J. Volstead, statue of a camel, heroic size, for the lawn of his home in Granite Falls, Minn. E. L. Drifting with the Tied = 1916 FRIEND: I saw you and your husband in the \UTOMOBILES ARE THE GREATEST CURSE OF park last night. He had his arm around you. CIVILIZATIO: 1916 Wire (stcooning): That wasn't I! “) CAN’T KEEP UP THE PAYMENTS ON MINE, EITHER.” Ten Years Later 1926 Frienp: I saw you and your husband in the park last night. He had his arm around you. Football 1926 Wire (blushing): That wasn't my husband. URING the football season of 1926 the following things will take place: Freorsy: Dora has such generous impulses! The Harvard Crimson will again come out strongly Mopsy: And such remarkable strength in resisting against overemphasis and all the editors of the Crimson — them! will bet every cent they have on the Yale game. All the college presidents will deliver harangues in favor of the purity of cur athletics and 287 half- backs will receive fifty dollars an hour for taking care of the children of rich alumni. 145 icemen will appear in foot- ball uniforms and look eager. Two weeks later 142 of them will be de- liverin, in. The 143rd_ will make a vard and a half off tackle in the Squeedunk game, whereupon every newspaper in the country will print the headline, “Second Red Grange Flashes Across Horizon.” 236 young men will twist’ their knees and be incapacitated for three weeks as Charlestoners. young man will drop a punt and be incapacitated forever as a bond salesman, E. L. G. An Event IST: So they are ideally mated? Downpour: Yes. He's a born Audrey: ou, HOW 1 HATE WIM—HATE WIM—HATE HIM! leader of men and so is she! Jane: AND HOW LONG HAS THIS ROMANCE BEEN GOING ON? comicbooks.com