Life, 1927-11-24 · page 17 of 44
Life — November 24, 1927 — page 17: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains social satire typical of early 20th-century *Life* magazine. The main cartoon depicts a formal dinner scene where a snobbish couple (Mr. and Mrs. Newpile) are questioned about cultivating the "snobbes"—wealthy but socially inferior nouveaux riches. Mrs. Newpile boasts their money exceeds the questioner's by two months' earnings, satirizing materialism masquerading as refinement. Below is a "Glossary of Restaurant Terms"—mock-definitions mocking both pretentious dining culture and working-class restaurant staff. Terms like "Bill of Fare," "Order," and "Silverware" are redefined sarcastically to expose hypocrisy between fine dining's pretense and its actual operations. The bottom section contains unrelated brief humor pieces about romance and geography. The satire targets Gilded Age social climbing and restaurant culture's artificiality.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Glossary of Restaurant Terms ILL OF FARE: A carefully pre- pared list of indigestible ar- ticles, compiled by a connoisseur of misspelling, from which you are to select your Order: Something which the res- taurant is always “out of,” owing to foresight of the Restaurateur: The man who sits at the cash register and watches you out of the corner of his eye as you finger the Silverware: Large, nickel-plated tools resembling an agricultural implements, which, before using in your gastronomical acrobatics, it is wise to polish with the Napkin: A rectangular piece of prehistoric cloth much resembling the first underclothing worn by a vx Baby: The blonde that waits on the other fellow’s table, or with the Tablecloth: An ag- glomerate of assorted soup-, egg- and grease- stains cleverly held to- gether by a web, upon which the Diner: One who is suspected of pocketing the posed to leave a Tip: Any coin of small denomina- tion, preferably one believed to be counterfeit, for the : What the other fellow al- , supposed to have been silverware, is sup- : The woman whose back is always turned to you. Asia Kagowan. A Notable Date ANTONY (to Cleopatra): Meet +2 me at the bend in the Nile at nine to-night. M ARRIAGES may be made in + heaven but the separation usu ally occurs when the principals have come down to earth, Vee A Mr. Newpile: ane you sure THE sNopBES ARE SUPERIOR ENOVGIt TO BE WORTH CULTIVATING ? Mrs. Newpile: CERTAINLY. THEY’VE HAD THEIR MONEY TWO MONTHS LONGER THAN WE'VE HAD ot is casier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter jail RNIAN 2” “No, UM FROM DENVER.” “SHAKE, BROTHER EASTERNER, TOO,” “ARE YOU A NATIVE CALI VM AN comicbooks.com