Life — November 11, 1926 — page 9: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This comic strip satirizes traffic police officers ("linesmen" — those who enforce street traffic lines) during their off-season when there's less work. The humor progresses through escalating absurdity: 1. An officer tickets a toy car at a stop sign 2. He stops children in the toy car, warning them to back up 3. He chases them with a water hose (as if it's a weapon) 4. In the final panels, he's actively attacking/arresting them with a club and net The satire mocks overzealous police who, lacking real enforcement duties, invent petty violations or resort to comical harassment of innocent civilians—here represented by children in a toy car. It's a commentary on bureaucratic overreach and boredom-driven abuse of authority.