Life, 1927-04-07 · page 13 of 59
Life — April 7, 1927 — page 13: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page satirizes deck tennis, a leisure game played aboard ocean liners. The main article describes the absurdly complicated scoring system and rules of the game—described as one of "the most astonishing, unscrupulous, and demoralizing games yet invented by the mind of man." The accompanying cartoon titled "Don't Ask Me Another!" shows a confused passenger unable to understand the game's rules, humorously depicting the bewilderment deck tennis inspires. A second cartoon, "Right Off the Boat," jokes about American tourists' ignorance, showing travelers at a coastal location asking directions while clearly lost. The satire targets both the pretentiousness of ocean liner leisure culture and American tourists' stereotypical confusion abroad.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
NOAH’S ARK PASSES THE TWELVE-MILE LIMIT. Deck Tennis Most people, when they embark on an ocean liner, think that they are putting all forms of strenuous exercise behind them. Six days of untiring devotion to their deck chairs is what they anticipate in the field of athletics. But unless they are very, very careful whom they associate with on the boat, they will find themselves in the clutch of some ocean-going maniac who has in- veigled them, all unwilling and inno- cent, into one of the most dastardly, un- scrupulous, and de- moralizing games yet invented by the mind of man. I refer, of course, to —no, guess again— s right: deck tennis. Every ocean liner has one or more deck tennis courts, located in that por- tion of the ship which has the most large beams crossing overhead, Laughing and joking among themselves, t h e players drop their coats on some freshly painted winch, and the game is on. Now as for the details: The server (for convenience let us call him Mr. A or East) bends the quoit into some fantastic shape which appeals to his imagination, and tosses it across the net at Miss B or Middle West. The second player (the striker) reaches for the flying quoit and catches it (a) on her thumb, (b) with both hands, (c) in the back of the neck, and attempts to toss it back at Mr. A. Score (whatever the result) fifteen-love. Mr. A serves the quoit to Mr. Z (Schenectady, N. Y.), who drops it. Score: thirty-love. Sixteen people now tiptoe hurriedly across the court, nervously looking over their backs at Mr. A. When play is resumed, the server loops the quoit over at Miss B, who shricks and throws it over the side of the Don’t Ask Me Another! No. 2 Inquisitive Clara: PAR- DON ME, BUT WHAT Is A HARPY? (Answer on page 47) boat. Score: forty-love, and an intermission of fifteen minutes while some one goes and finds the steward. Mr. A now serves the quoit to Mr. Z again, and a vigorous rally ensues, ending only when (a) Miss B gets a shot, (b) the quoit lands on a beam and stays there, leading to mutual recriminations and a long argu- ment about the point, or (c) two of the players reach for the quoit at the same time and get concussion of the brain. Score: one wounded, two missing (probably in the bar by this time). The game ends with a faint cheer for the Cunard Line, whose far-sighted policy has made deck tennis, in this day and age, practically impossible. Norman R. Jaffray. Right Off the Boat USTOMER:-What kind of Scotch is this, with the label upside down? Bootteccer: Well, you see, the Mauretania had a very rough passage. i ‘ pe ' American Tourist: so THIs 18 THE ToP oO” THE MATTER- HORN, EH? WELL, WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE? comicbooks.com