Life, 1927-04-07 · page 22 of 59
Life — April 7, 1927 — page 22: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This satirical comic mocks a tedious traveler—a wealthy woman who collects trivial souvenirs and insists on explaining contrived wordplay connecting each object to its origin. The humor relies on puns: a "key" from Key West, a "pen" from Sing Sing penitentiary, "hay wire" from Hawaii, "sand" from San Diego, a "switch" from Switzerland, and so forth. The satire targets upper-class tourism and social pretension circa the early 20th century. The character boasts about her travels while subjecting her listener to exhausting, groan-worthy jokes she clearly invented herself. Her repetitive "dearie" and self-satisfied tone emphasize shallow materialism masquerading as worldliness and wit. The exasperated listener's silence communicates what modern readers understand: this woman is insufferable.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
—Drivvellogue— RAVELED? Me? Why dearie just look at these souvenirs I've brought from different places — tell me if you don’t think they're the originalest things—all my own idea too—f'r instance, this wisp of hay —I brought that from J]aiti—see?—hay from Haiti —clever? hm? —and this ant I got in the Antilles— couldn't you just scream? —and this bell from Belgium—hasn’t it got the darlingest tinklie-tinklie? —and this bowl from Bolivia—oh dearie I just had the grandest time thinking all these things up and then trying to find the right thing in the right country— : v f'r instance when I got this egg in Ecuador you should have seen the man’s face—I thought I'd scream— hm? why should I have got a pistol at Gatun what's the sense of that?— oh that reminds me— where d’you think I got this key? now think hard dearie—aw, no, not Lockport!—Key MWest, stupid—and I thought you’d be the smartie that'd guess that one right off—that’s one of the easy ones— —now this piece of oak is from Oklahoma—he-he-he— and this pen is from?—from?— SINGSing!?!—why what's that got to do with—oh, I see—pen, peni- tentia—oh aren't you terrible—but you knew all the time it was from Pennsylvania didn’t you dearie of course you did you old smartie— and this can I got in Canada—isn't that silly he-he-he-he — but really I've covered an azwful lot of territory to get these things—of course they're not much but they are awfully clever and original don’t you think so and this hay wire from Hawaii—ooh- hoohoohoo-hoo-hoo!—how I laughed when I thought of that one— hm?—that little bottle of water?— oh that was ice I got in Iceland— isn’t that perfectly killing ?— and this cube of palm wood—where d’you think I got that des no, not Palm Beach but you're getting warm dearic—further south now— oh, South Bend !—you just guessed that to be mean—aren’t you inter- ested dearie?—aw you knew it was from Cuba didn’t you course you did you old tease— but here’s one you can’t guess—these playing cards—I got that deck in Dakota — huhoohoohoo ! — isn’t that keen?— and this sand I got in SanDiego— and this switch in Switzerland— and this rock in Morocco—my how I have moved about— and this jam is from Jamaica— me and this purse I got in Persia— * from virginia, no doubt” and where do you think I got this -heh-heh-heh- chemise? —VirGINia? —why dearie you said that real —I got this chemise in mysl—isn’t that ripping? y ANE =e —I wanted to bring some fitting memento from Corsica but they're not wearing them there any more either — oh must you go dearic?— well g’-by. Fred G. Cooper. D Mis bee us | seer sor sen gon alit haw roo! stay whe \ mer Du rea fict hav and In the: fee! puz mat inte comicbooks.com