Life, 1927-12-01 · page 71 of 80
Life — December 1, 1927 — page 71: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains a serialized humorous story rather than political cartoons. The main narrative follows a grandfather recounting a Christmas tale aboard a Japanese steamer named *Saki* heading to New York. **The Story's Point:** The humor derives from cultural misunderstanding and sentimentality. Japanese sailors attempt to greet a mysteriously silent ship using progressively absurd phrases ("Shiver my timbers," "Hello," "Allo"). They discover the captain weeping alone—he'd prepared Christmas presents and a cake for sailors who never arrived, representing a touching but comedic failure of holiday expectations. A young Japanese passenger named Saki saves the day by eating the cake, allowing everyone to celebrate together. **Social Context:** This reflects 1920s American attitudes toward Japan as exotic and "other," while treating cross-cultural Christmas as charmingly sentimental. The story plays on American stereotypes about Japanese formality meeting Western holiday tradition. **Advertisements:** The page also features a Murad cigarette ad and a Bellans indigestion remedy ad—typical period magazine content unrelated to the narrative.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Christmas at Sea (Continued from page 35) Japanese steamer Saki was hurrying towards New York, as many of the Japanese wanted to be there for Christmas—or, at least, the Japa- nese Christmas which comes about two weeks later, depending upon the position of the moon. It was late in the afternoon, and the wind had ly. The sea was agitated. ; on the horizon, there appea ship and the Japanese captain watched it intently. Say,’ he remarked to Saki, the First Mate, ‘do you notice anything funny about that ship?’ “Shiver my. timbers!” the mate, looking through the spy- exclaimed glass. What does that the captain. ““Oh, it's just sort of an expres- sion I use,’ replied the mate. “"T mean—what do you think is wrong with that shiy All this, you understand, was be- ing said in Japanese, and at the decided to mean?" asked mate's suggestion they give the strange craft a hail ““Hail!’ they eried, but no an- swer came over the water. Try “Hello,” suggested the but that met with still less re- sponse and after they 1h experi- mented with ‘Allo’ apd ‘Say’ and Are you there?’ they decided to range up alongside. By this time, grandfather, “it was beginning to get dark and you can imagine their sur- prise when they found that there was apparently no one on. board wind whistled thro finally, at the mate's su; ’ decided to see who was in the cap- And_ there, strangely enough, they found the captain.” “Dead?” 1 gasped, spellbound My grandfather shook his head “No,” he replied, “but he was ery ing pretty hard.” I wanted to ask a question, but I refrained “Why? T asked “It was Christmas.” explained my grandfather, “and he'd bought a lot of presents for the sailors — and baked a cake—beeruse he wanted to surprise them—and—they mate, continued = my tain’s room. never showed—t Ina few moments my grandfather was able to continue. “Luckily,” he continued, “there was on the steamer a young Japanese girl named Saki, Japanese who was on her way to America, and she ate the cake and the captain dried his tears and soon every one was happy and they gathered around an improvised tree and sang carols EMBARRASSING MOMENTS When the missin, is discovered under your chair... be nonchalant... © 1927, P. Lorillard Co., Eat. 1760 and every one voted it the happiest Christmas they had ever had.” My grandfather was silent for a few minutes. Then he straightened up and tossed away the object he had been examining. “LT thought it was a dime,” he re- marked. went back to work and that night my cousin and I were very, very So we glad to crawl] into bed, although we were also very, very d that we “bit” towards harvesting the annual crop of Christmas trees. had done our Southern Exposure “LTOW'D you like some of that Canadian land that get simply by squatting on it “Brrrr, no; me for one of those tropical beaches that can be had for the basking.” uocan + lighta MURAD CIGARETTE MURAD For those who feel entitled to life’s better things SS WSS ce in the poker deck “JIM and Virginia are certainly dancing close together.” “Yeh—they're having a heart to heart talk.” Sure Relief ~7) BELLANS 6 BELtLans <2—— | Hot water Sure Relief BELL-ANS FOR_INDIGESTION | 25¢ and 75¢ Pkg's Sold Everywhere comicbooks.com