Life, 1927-02-17 · page 26 of 34
Life — February 17, 1927 — page 26: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This 1930 *Life* magazine sketch satirizes Prohibition enforcement and the absurdities of government overreach. The title "Uncle Borgia" invokes the Renaissance Borgia family, known for poisoning rivals—equating aggressive Prohibition with state-sponsored murder. The Director of Prohibition (likely a caricature of actual enforcement officials) is angered that poisoned alcohol deaths from illicit bootleg liquor are too low. He demands more potent toxins causing "horrible agonies," treating mass poisoning as a competition and matter of "national reputation." The satire targets: - **Prohibition's deadly consequence**: Government-poisoned industrial alcohol killed thousands when bootleggers diluted it - **Bureaucratic absurdity**: Treating poisoning as an efficiency metric - **Government hypocrisy**: Claiming patriotism while causing deaths The secondary sketch about Federal Night Clubs mocks expanding wartime/Prohibition-era government control over entertainment and labor regulations. The cartoon exposes how Prohibition's enforcement created bureaucratic monsters indifferent to human suffering.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
(The scene is in the private office of the U. S. Director or Proutsi- tion. The time is 1930. The room is sumptuously furnished. On the walls are numerous dry-point etch- ings, and at one end of the room hangs a handsome water-color por- trait of Wayne Wheeler. The Di- rector is seated at his desk. The door opens and his secretary enters.) IRECTOR: Well? Secretary: The reports are coming in slowly. So far eleven hundred and fifteen deaths were reported yesterday in New York; nine hundred and three in Illinois; nine hundred and twelve in California; eight Director (angrily): This will never do. Only a miserable eleven hundred and fifteen in New York! We're becoming the laugh- ing-stock of the country— or what's left of it. Secretary — (timidly): Maybe some of the people are giving up drinking. Director: Well, then, they should be made to drink! Where’s your pa- triotism? We have a na- tional reputation for effi- ciency to maintain. When Uncle Sam goes into the poisoning business he’s got to be the greatest poisoner that ever existed. What are we using now? WITH OUR OATS LATELY. Eighth Horse: No—1T GOES AGAINST THE GRAIN. Uncle Borgia Secretary: Principally and prussic acid. Director: Too mild and too pain- less. We must get a poison that makes ‘em die in horrible agonies. Ha, ha, ha! Secretary: Ha, ha, ha! (4 green light shines on the Di- rector. The orchestra plays “Hearts and Flowers.”’) arsenic “YES, DEAR, WHEN UNCLE GEORGE WAS A LITTLE BOY HE LOOKED JUST LIKE You.” “THE WELL you say!” Director (ominously) : Something fF slow—and agonizing. ' Secretary: The Supervisor ¢ Federal Night Clubs and Cabaret is outside. Dinector: Send him in. (The Secretary exits and te turns with the Supervisor or tat F. N.C. & C.) Director (eagerly): Yes? Supervisor: The situatio is desperate, chief. Och enemies have gotten Senate Beezel to introduce a bil abolishing the cover charg. F Director: My God! Surervisor: He says it’s undemocratic for the Gorf) ernment to demand a cover charge from its patron And that isn’t all. Director: Tell me tk wo UPERVISOR : Senate! Radish says that now tht) all cabaret performers sr Government employees, thes should be on the Civil Se vice list. He is preparing! bill making all Black Be tom and Charleston expert take a competitive examisr tion. Dmecrtor: Impossible. Supervisor: Well, ther some justice in what says. He claims that it’s & possible for a girl to get! (Continued on page 2) comicbooks.com