Life, 1927-05-26 · page 13 of 39
Life — May 26, 1927 — page 13: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page features an "Alibi Contest" — a humor competition where readers submit excuses for misbehavior. The winning entry, submitted by Mrs. William Pitt Fessenden of Brookline, Massachusetts, won $50.00. The featured cartoon (Alibi Number Twenty-Four) shows a schoolboy caught by his teacher with a fabricated written excuse for absence. The boy claims his mother wrote it, but the teacher notes that nearly every word is misspelled—suggesting the boy actually wrote it himself, poorly, attempting deception. The joke mocks a common childhood trick: forging a parent's note to skip school. The satire targets both the boy's transparent dishonesty and the universal gap between children's literacy and their parents'. The contest invited readers to submit similar humorous excuses and explanations for everyday transgressions.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
PRIZE WINNERS ALIBI NUMBER NINETEEN Mrs. Snip: wow poes iT itApPEN, IP you KNOW M THAT SHE PAS: Inc TO you? Mrs. Clymer: weut, you sre, It’s tus way... .I told her last evening Ihardly knew her, she had grown so stout. UPTOP SO INTIMAT! This Alibi, which wins the first prize of $50.00, was submitted by Mrs. Wittiam Pitt Fessenven, 1865 Beacon Street, Brookline, Massachusetts. Five second prizes of $10.00 each have been awarded to the following: H. H. Dani St. Louis, Mis- souri, for the Alibi: “You misunder- stood me. 1 told you I saw her in Italy. You asked, ‘Genoa?’ and I said ‘Yes.’ Fave Burenrierp, Johnstown, Pennsylvania, for the Alibi: “My dear, she is wearing her ‘turn down’ ‘high hat’ to-day.” Katuanine Perry, Galt, Canada, for the Ali “She knows me so well that she sees right through me!" Oswatp Suaw, New York City, for the Alibi: “I asked her for the names of her beauty specialists to recommend them to my mother!" Jere Sparx, Brighton Beach, New York, for the Alibi: “Some one told her she was too beautiful for words.” RIGHT BY WITHOUT SPEAK- ALIBI CONTEST Conditions of the Contest on page 33 $100.00 Weekly in Prizes (YOR this week’s Alibi Lire presents, for your most serious consideration, the truly frightful situation of little Johnny, who has offered his teacher a written ex- cuse for absence from school. The excuse, in the teacher's opinion, leaves much to be desired in the matter of spelling. It is just possible, she believes, that serious doubts may be felt as to who actually wrote it. You, naturally, never missed a day of school; not even in the springtime, when the fish bit and the swimming-hole called. ° But, undoubtedly, you have known boys so lost to shame that they sometimes played hookey. then, to imagine that one in-blackened souls might be this same little Johnny; help him out with his Alibi, using twenty-five words, or less, and, if your excuses are sufficiently in- genious, we will reward you with one of the cash prizes, as follows: First Prize, $50.00 Five Second Prizes of $10.00 each ALIBI NUMBER TWENTY- FIVE will be published in Lire ext week, with a new set of prizes offered. Read the conditions carefully —and go to it! ALIBI NUMBER TWENTY-FOUR | Teacher: you SAY THIS EXCUSE FOR YOUR ABSENCE WAS WRIT- TEN BY YOUR MOTHER, AND YET NEARLY EVERY WORD 18 Johnny: PLAIN! It’s THIS WAY... comicbooks.com