Life, 1928-02-23 · page 12 of 35
Life — February 23, 1928 — page 12: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
The main cartoon depicts an artist painting a portrait while a sitter complains about staring. The humor relies on a common tension: the artist needs the subject to hold still and maintain an expression, but the sitter finds this uncomfortable and monotonous. Below is "Mrs. Pop's Diary" (dated January 31st), a humorous column where the author describes having a cold and summoning Dr. Cuff. The entry humorously contrasts the doctor's quick efficiency with the author's elaborate complaints and observations about illness, luxury spending (theater seats, florists), and social pretensions. The accompanying illustration labeled "A Heavy Date Palm" appears to be unrelated visual humor. This represents typical early-20th-century American satirical magazine content mocking ordinary domestic life and social affectations.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
“Please don’t fidget. Can't you hold a pose?” “Well, I don't mind sitting here if you pay me for it, but I can’t have you staring at me like that.” This morning when I January essayed to address Sam- 31st uel, I did find that I had lost my voice during the night, so that I could speak nought above a whisper, and even that with the greatest difficulty, nor could I fail to perceive, albeit he was compassionate enough and quick about summoning the chirurgeon, that Sam derived a sort of humorous satisfaction from my malady, and even the servants seemed suddenly a trifle smug, so that I was reminded of La Roche- foucauld’s statement that there is always something in the misfor- tune of our best friends whieh is not entirely displeasing to us, an axiom which I have heretofore been utterly unable to compre- hend. But I did make a good breakfast, nevertheless, being al- ways willing to interpret liberally the proverbial injunction to feed We Poe Diary 2B a cold, and then came Dr. Cuff, with orders for a steaming croup kettle and various medicaments, and I did A Heavy Date Pato settle down to enjoy my illness, if I could, with faint hopes that some of my cronies might hear of it and cheer me with a posy or two. Which does remind me that when we were discussing outstanding signs of prosperity the other day, Effie Goings cited fresh flowers in the house, but Lord! how is one to tell that they have not been bought with the last half-loaf of one who believes in hyacinths as soul fodder? At least that is the way I do feel myself when I write the cheque for our florist, the cur- rent installment of whose bill is no further off than the morrow. One of my conceptions of luxury is buying an extra seat at the theatre to hold wraps and keep strangers at a distance, and an- other is to speak over the long distance telephone with one’s mind on the topic of conversation rather than (Please turn to page 28) I Wo I'l comicbooks.com