Life, 1928-03-01 · page 27 of 42
Life — March 1, 1928 — page 27: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains three satirical pieces from Life magazine: **"His Masterpiece"**: A designer of murals and buildings is shown laboring intensely over an infinitesimal speck on a vast blank page. The joke: he claims it's a dance floor for an expensive nightclub, mocking the pretension and absurdity of modernist minimalism in design—the ironic contrast between grand ambitions and comically tiny results. **"Just Between Us Girls"**: A rambling monologue (with emphasized syllables indicating affected speech) from a woman fretting about accepting expensive gifts from an admirer. The satire targets vapid, self-absorbed socialites of the era who talk in circles, claim poverty-stricken motives while accepting luxury, and obsess over propriety while being transparently mercenary. **"The Human Element"**: A brief caption showing a weary information-bureau clerk snapping at visitors—satire on bureaucratic indifference and poor customer service. All three target contemporary social pretension and human folly through exaggeration and irony.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
His Masterpiece A FRIEND of mine is a designer of international reputation, hav- ing designed murals and kindred items for buildings in both the United States and Chicago. I called upon him not long ago and interrupted him in the act of manipulating various instruments over a minute spot in the middle of a vast expanse of white paper. “Sorry to intrude,” I apologized. “Not at all,” he replied; ‘come right in. Here's my latest creation.” I examined the infinitesimal speck over which he had been laboring. “So the Government has commis- sioned you to design a new postage stamp?” I queried. He seemed disappointed. “You're mistaken, old man; it’s the dance floor for the new million- dollar Hip and Sip night club,” was his reply. J. L. D. TESSIE: Helen is a lovely girl. I think she’s perfectly sweet. Harr darling? Life SUST BETWEEN US GIRLS “M* dear, I’m all-of-a-DOOdah! I mean I’m ACtually OSsified over something at this point, be- cause you know that AWfully sweet BOY, Truxton DAINgerfield, who I met last SUMmer, my dear, and who gave me such a tre MENdous RUSH and all? WELL, my dear, he keeps GIVing me things all the entire TIME—I mean I’ve ACtually never in my LIFE seen ANYbody so u oi “Not to-night, Freddie. I guess I'll just sit around the apartment and loaf.” GEN'rous, sort of, because I mean s GIVing me these TERribly sive PRESents and things, my dear, and I HONestly don’t FEEL I ought to acCEPT them be- cause I REALIy don’t b’'LIEVE he can afFORD it, my dear, but it’s TERribly HARD to know what to DO in a case like that, because he’s REALIly perfectly SWEET and all, only I think it sort of PUTS you under obliGAtions to a youth when you acCEPT kind of exP ive PRESents and things from him and I mean I'd HATE to have him THINK I was enCOURaging him or anything because while I SIMply aDORE him and all, my dear, I simply could NEVer MARry him, do you know what I mean? But you don't S’POSE he thinks giving me PRESents all the time can make any DIF’rence in my FEELings towards him, do you? I mean if I had the SLIGHTest iDEA he thought that GIVing me_ things would make me FEEL any DIF'rent towards him I simply wouldn't ac- CEPT ANYthing from him, my dear, but I can’t b’LIEVE he would be POISonous enough to think that could make any POSsible DIF’- rence, my dear, and I think he’s the TYPE that would be TERribly HURT if I reFUSED to accept these PRESents he keeps GIVing me, my dear—I ACtually DO!” Lloyd Mayer. The Human Element “TOOK here,” said the weary in- formation-bureau clerk who was new at the job, “you must think I haven't got anything better to do than stand here and answer ques- tions all day!” comicbooks.com