Life, 1927-02-24 · page 25 of 39
Life — February 24, 1927 — page 25: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
**Top Cartoon**: A restaurant scene satirizing pretentious diners. A customer delivers an absurdly complicated steak order with contradictory specifications (rare AND well-done, thick yet thin), while the exasperated waiter simply shouts "STEAK!" This mocks affectation and overcomplicated demands among the wealthy. **"Why Buy a Saxophone?"**: A story about social climbing. Melcia is embarrassed by her husband Winton's cultural ignorance (unfamiliar with Gauguin, unable to discuss "The Procurator of Judea"). To win back their social circle, he buys a book and studies chemistry, which ironically attracts people seeking free alcohol analysis rather than genuine intellectual companionship. The satirical point: genuine knowledge isn't what impresses society—perceived usefulness or entertainment value is. **"From a Club Chair"**: Brief observations mocking women's vanity about beauty treatments, university ticket scalping, theatre as voyeurism rather than art, and military-industrial corruption (jokes about wartime profiteering through "dollar-a-year" government jobs).
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
{ | Live “wom, ves! END, WELL DONE AT THE OTHER, VLL HAVE A NICE TENDER MINUTE STEAK, RARE AT ONE NOT TOO THICK AND COOKED TO MAKE IT A RICH BROWN ON THE TOP AND PALE GRAY UNDERNEATH.” “yes, sin! “STEAK!” Why Buy a Saxophone? OOR Meleia; it was dreadful the way her husband embarrassed her. It wasn’t the things Winton said, or his actions, but rather the things he didn't say. How mortified she had been that evening at the Van Dorg- heims’ when Reggie had asked him his opinion of Gauguin’s influence on modern painting, and Winton had to admit that he had never heard of the eccentric French artist. Then there was that dinner with the Brufftons, which had started and ended with a discussion of “The Procurator of Judea,” and Winton had remained silent throughout the entire conversation. Things had gone from bad to worse, and were still going. It was seldom now that they received an in- vitation to go among those people who really were somebody. Poor Melcia. “Why don’t you read more?" Melcia asked, in a pleading tone. “But I haven't time; I don’t like to Melcia grew more dis- contented every day. Then, because Winton loved her, he decided to make an ef- fort to win back her old friends. He bought a book, and many nights that he should have spent planning another subdivision he devoted to diligent study. It was only a few short months before the old crowd started com- ing around 4} “VES, HE PROPOSED TO ME, TOO.” “JACK SEEMS VERY ANXIOUS TO GET MARRIED.” again. First they came singly, then in couples, and before another month had passed they came in droves. They came before breakfast and after breakfast; before midnight and after midnight, and always they brought along a bottle of liquor; for Winton had studied chemistry and could analyze it for them. Spencer A. Spencer. From a Club Chair HAVE yet to see a woman walk out of a beauty parlor who didn't look as if she believed it. **# © It would be singularly appropriate if, when a universi School of Fine Arts starts teaching drama- turgy, the School of Commerce would arrange a course in ticket speculation. **# * The theatre, at the present time, is not holding a mirror up to life, but a keyhole. ** # a t I was certain from the first that we wouldn't have war with Mexico. That could never furnish enough dollar-a-year jobs to go round, James Kevin McGuinness. comicbooks.com