Life, 1927-05-26 · page 16 of 39
Life — May 26, 1927 — page 16: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains three main elements: **"Block Signals"** (top): A cartoon joke about a woman named Betty who claims to have "green lipsticks" from a drug store, which a railroad man will supposedly call on her about tonight—the humor relies on the double meaning of "green" (inexperienced/naive). **"Mrs. Pep's Diary"** (center): A dated social column where the author describes European travel and fashionable women's customs, including lipstick use—reflecting 1920s concerns about modern women's cosmetics and behavior. **"Progress"** (bottom): A before-and-after cartoon comparing a street construction site in 1927 versus 1977, satirizing slow urban development and bureaucratic red tape (the same warning signs remain unchanged fifty years later). The overall page reflects 1920s anxieties about modernity, women's changing roles, and American progress.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Block Signals Betty: po you WAVE ANY GREEN LIPSTICKS? Drug-Store Clerk: Green Liv- STICKS? A RAILROAD MAN ON ME TO- Betty: ves. TO CAL NIGHT, RE PrROWW—* CN: Pops Diary» May The time of year is now I at hand when I do long to 4th be in a part of the world where manners and customs are ut- terly different from our own, for Lord! I am weary of watching women use lipsticks, of getting cir- cular letters from tradespeople, of seeing pictures of the Roosevelt Memorial, and of finding in the front of every novel I pick up a state- ment to the effect that no character in it is a real person. I should like to go, moreover, to a place where no other Americans would be, foras- much as my compatriots do come as near to spoiling Europe for me as if they had set about it intentionally, CAUTION MEN and upon one occasion, when a young girl sang stanzas of Gallagher and Shean’s song to the hosts of the inn at Amalfi, I should have cast myself into the Mediterranean had not my companions dissuaded me. Up be- times this morning, did on my garnet silk, which, to my great joy, is now far too loose in the bodice, and out to look for a fox scarf, without which a woman might better be dead this season, But the ones I fancied were all too fabulously priced, as though their vendors sold to naught but mo- tion picture actresses, nor could I bring myself to purchase one which I could afford after having glimpsed (Continued on page 28) Progress An Essay on Art by One Who Has Never Been There "THERE are angles in the obloids of a sphere. There are circles in the corners of a square, And although I never saw them, I could very quickly draw them— The parabolic cubes that fill the : There are concave curves in every pyramid. . Each ellipsoid has a conic all its own, And with just a stroke or two I could soon depict for you ‘The pensive spiral motion of a stone. Every trapezoid has octahedron ovals, Every asymptote moves through a conjunct base. And the cissoids of the toes, Like an epicyclie nose, Form the hyperbolic tangents to the face. Space is only Time within a prism, While a catenary conchoid stands for Thought. With ea » brush, and paint, I can picture what is ain’t.... An isolated isometric Naught. Horatio C. Wood, 3rd. Envy OVING EY That Miller girl goes out with every Tom, Dick and Harry. Watt Frowrr: No wonder she looks so happy! STREET SCENE IN 1927 SAME STREET SCENE IN 1977 comicbooks.com