Life — March 17, 1927 — page 8: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# Prohibition-Era Satire This page satirizes **Prohibition's unintended consequences**. The bottom cartoon, captioned "Add Evils of Prohibition," shows a speakeasy (illegal bar) operating openly behind a storefront labeled "Skeziks Family Orange." A well-dressed man asks McCarthy if this is "a hell of a way to be celebratin' saint patrick's day?" The joke: Prohibition, meant to eliminate alcohol and moral corruption, instead created underground drinking establishments that flourished openly. The irony is that illegal bars operated so brazenly that patrons could celebrate holidays in them without fear—demonstrating that the law's enforcement was toothless and the "cure" worse than the disease. The upper poem "Hyphenated" appears unrelated to this cartoon, expressing nostalgic homesickness.