Life, 1928-04-05 · page 23 of 59
Life — April 5, 1928 — page 23: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains three distinct humor pieces reflecting 1920s concerns: **"Lament on a Passport Photo"** (poem by W.J. Duncan): A satirical complaint about unflattering passport photographs. The speaker laments that his photo makes him look like a criminal ("gallows-bird"), fearing no country will admit him based on this grimace. It's social satire about the absurdity of rigid passport photography—the tension between one's actual appearance and an unflattering official image that determines travel eligibility. **"Consult Your Local Catter"**: A brief joke exposing fur industry deception. Expensive fur coats were sold under exotic animal names (Manchurian Fox, Hudson Sable, etc.) when they were actually just cat fur—mocking consumer gullibility and marketing fraud in the luxury goods trade. **"Mrs. Peps' Diary"** (March 13th entry): Society humor about an upper-class woman distressed by fashion (higher waistlines) and dependent on her maid Virgie for managing life's details—from household tasks to spelling and historical facts. It satirizes wealthy women's frivolous concerns and helplessness without domestic staff.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Lament On a Passport Photo LAS, that I should ever live to see The like of such a misbegotten face, Wearing a look ’twixt piety and disgrace, Meekness and murder! And, if such things be, How comes this gallows-bird to pass for me? I search in vain; in vain I try to trace One feature—there is nought in that grimace That to a human likeness will agree. Oh, never let me hence unjustly look On others harshly, or think ill of those Whom Fate belies, misunderstand ; It's hard to be mistaken for a crook; Yet if they spot this photograph, God knows, No country in the world will let me land! and men W. J. Duncan. Consult Your Local Catter A CAT has nine lives. It also has the following names: Mendoza Beaver, Manchurian Fox, Peruvian Caracul, Abyssinian Lynx, Bolivian Opossum, Hudson Sable, Baby Seal, Aleutian Lynx, Siberian Mink, and cat, VONNE: Fred seems to have a better disposition than most men, Yverre: 1 don’t know lim very well cither. “Is travel educating? Why, I found out that Eau de this and Eau de that ain't nothing but water of this and that.” Ws PLepis Diary March Greatly cast down at I reading in the publick 13th prints definite confirma- tion of the rumour that the waistline is to be higher, which is the worst news I have heard since my Virgie did inform me five years ago that she was going out of regular service and would come to me but once a week thereafter. Now indeed shall I take to robes de style, as Sam is always urging me to do, and Cheruit, Patou and the rest of them will have to get along as best they can, albeit Vionnet will always be with me. As for Virgie, she has been absent three weeks because of illness, and my personal affairs are such a shambles that I dare not let my husband know of their state, from the spots on my pet chiffon matinee to my missing baby-pictures and the piled-up books and magazines, forasmuch as he does deem my dependence on Virgie a weak-minded business, but Lord! where these days can one find a maid who can do everything from cleaning jewelry to making out one’s income tax? Not to mention her certainty as a court of appeal in spelling and doubtful dates in history and Eng- lish literature. The telephone a-ring- ing, and it was Agnes Smith, saying that if I would come out to lunch with her she would buy me some- thing under glass, and fresh aspara- gus, so up and did on my new black chiffon voile, the day being fine, and off to meet Aggie, finding her some- what distrait over having lost the “And have you any advice to girls?” “Yes, tell them not to take any.” farmer (Please turn to page 46) comicbooks.com