Life, 1927-02-03 · page 7 of 35
Life — February 3, 1927 — page 7: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page satirizes working-class hardship through a dog's complaint about his employer. The dog character laments long hours ("eight times last week"), dangerous conditions (being "fainted dead away"), and mistreatment by "that long-nosed ant-eater" (his boss). The accompanying illustrations mock both the dog's predicament and romantic complications with a female dog. A lower panel depicts a "Switchboard Operator" anecdote about mixed electrical wires causing mishaps. The satire targets labor exploitation and poor working conditions of the era, using animal characters as stand-ins for human workers. The comedic tone softens serious complaints about industrial employment, wages, and workplace safety—issues relevant to early 20th-century labor movements. The piece uses humor to critique economic inequality and worker vulnerability.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
i A Dog’s Life A Comic-Strip Tragedy, in One Swoon (With Apologies to the Reader Exclusively) Scexe: The place where little comic-strip characters go when the ink dries. BIE: Noo, mine friends, how is eppis business? Maw: Heavenly Days! Nobuddy kin say as how I don’t work for my livin’. Seems like my job turned out and to be nuthin’ but one great big flop. Fainted dead a y eight times last week, I did, « Sunday, an’ each one with a loud, inky PLOP. 'S'wunder he wouldn’t let me Jery: Mm! With all due respect for a lady, Mrs. Perk you gotta admit that your job ain't so strenuous compared to mine. Faintin’ a few times a week? Soft, I calls it! Looka ) me, gettin’ beat up, scalded, drowned, } starved or blown up every single morning at the hands of that long- nosed ant-eater. Why, if Hm! Rilly, iss diss a s maybe mine boss sotch a izzy-going critchure wit a kind- hearted poison, ha? Roses witt wilets witt rho- dodendelines is moiders und arsenals from dem two liddle hyenas, ven T got to fight Menu Hors v'Oors Kartoox Sour Wisk Crackers Poor Fis Waa Saxowrenrs Bivesteas Barteeo Beaxs Swasieo Portators Asrenise Tirs Custaxo Pir lon Txt Curess Rares Tee Cenast Biack Goorv Cneese Curese Assautrep Ners. vild cats und firecrackers und can- nibals und glue und Asie: And supposin’ yes? How many times a toughish bummer gives me good so I got to lay in a hospital? Who could know—might’ll be with a petitioning we could ask our bosses they shouldn't efsher be so hard on us? Do us somet'ing, what could they do us? Mowrtss: De emotion I'm second- ing. So iss here any descending wotes? No? Iss passed! So I'll gonna rid de partition: “Wuerenas, de comical streep hentertainers in conwention ensem- bled have decited to protast from de roff witt hosh witt brutal trittment wot dey gatting from de bosses, be it gradually resolved 3 (Enter a burly tari driver, who proceeds to beat Anir to a pulp; fol- lowed by Potty, whose new ermine coat causes Maw to faint; Avoustus Mutt, who crowns Jerr th a cuspidor; Hans and Fritz, who set off a keg of dynamite undér the Captain; and finally Nize Bany, who inexplicably releases the cur- tain, causing it to fall with a crash and catch all hands neatly on the back of the neck.) ALL (swooning in unison, their eyes conspicu- mine axistence rat, wot it falls gradually by me in de had every Sunday a grant piano odder may- be a copple rhinocer- ouses. it should amusing de snops witt de highbrows! Bomps on de had witt blinkers: Tur Captain: Donner und blit- He: Wy, 1 CAN READ YOU LIKE A BOOK. She: WELL, TO ME, YOU’RE AS EASY AS A COMIC STRIP. ously blackened) : Awk! D’Annunzio Cohen. Habit 7-I RST SWITCH- BOARD OPER- ATOR: Minnie went to the track to bet on the horses yesterday. Seconop Ditto: How did she make out? “She got the plugs mixed, as usual,” comicbooks.com