Life, 1928-04-19 · page 27 of 43
Life — April 19, 1928 — page 27: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page satirizes early 20th-century female affectation and gossip culture through multiple cartoons and sketches. **Main Feature**: A lengthy monologue by a young woman breathlessly recounting her romantic misadventures in Bermuda, filled with exaggerated theatrical delivery (capitalized syllables indicate dramatic emphasis). She describes a suitor so devoted he threatened suicide, yet dismisses him over trivial physical features like his Adam's apple. The satire mocks women's superficiality, their tendency toward melodramatic storytelling, and their contradictory romantic expectations. **Side Cartoons**: Depict a clever gentleman using a ball-and-chain device to prevent lost mail—absurdist humor about forgetfulness. Another shows a man being led about in actual chains, representing marriage's supposed restriction of male freedom. **Opening Poem**: Lists all types of men and women ("dumb men," "bad girls," etc.) who nonetheless "get married," suggesting marriage is universal regardless of character. **Bottom Joke**: A schoolboy quips that human nature is "people before they rise in society"—cynical commentary on social pretense. The overall message: satirizes both female vanity and male anxieties about matrimony.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Life SUST BETWEEN US GIRLE Why Worry? EAN men and clean men, Vild men and mild men, Wee men and He-men, Dumb men and bum men, Sailor men and tailor men, Steam fitters and pinch hitters, Golf players and man slayers, Robbers and jobbers Get married. Trig girls and big girls, Tall girls and small girls, Rash girls and cash girls, Neat girls and sweet girls, Sad girls and bad girls, Hash slingers and opera singers, Circus riders and home abiders, Cooks and crooks Marry them. Y dear, I'm all-of-a-DITHer, no less, because I mean I HON- “) E. E. B. estly had the WEIRDest time in BerMUda, my dear! ACtually, it was SIMply MUcous because I'mean I met this TERribly cute CAPtain or something in the Scotch REGiment “YAJAS the burning theatre soon W emptied?” “Quick as a flask.” TFEOPLE WONDER WHY CLEVER MR, EVER IS SO OFTEN TO BE SEEN CARRYING A BALL & CHAIN ANYONE WHO FoLtows wim AS FAR AS A MAILBOX WiLt DISCOVER IT IS HIS INGENIOUS DEVICE TO PRE~ VENT Him trom FORGETTING TO MAIL US wes (5 ~A BALL, CHAIN 8 CLIP er J How Cuever Mr. Ever Kept His Pockets From Becominc a Deap-Letter Orrice. 25 and he fell MADly in LOVE with me, my dear, and took me to the aQUArium whére we GAZED at all these GUPpy-looking FISH for HOURS, my dear! Have you ever HEARD of anything more ro- MANtic? HONestly, my dear, I was _all-of-a-BLOT-and-'SCUTCH- con because they have these tre- MENdous OCtopi in this aQUA- rium place, my dear, and they're SIMply FAScinating because I mean they’re all sort of BLOBulous and GLOBulous and go VAGUEly AMbulating HITH this tre MENdous T K effect pur- SUing each other with CLAMmily AM’rous inTENtions or something and, my dear, I NEARIy had hys- TERics because this TERribly sweet YOUTH I met on the SHIP coming HOME, my dear, threatened to leap Overboard and commit SUicide because I wouldn't MARry him, my dear, and I was ACtually all hot and BOTHered be- cause I mean I SIMply aDORED him and all but I SIMply can’t HELP it, my dear—I VOW I simply NEVer could marry a man with an ADam’s apple that sort of FLOWS FLUently up and down their NECK ev'ry time they SWAL- low because I mean I'm FRIGHT- fully CRITical of people, my dear— I mean I ACtually AM!” Lloyd Mayer. He Knew TEACHER (to class): Who can tell me what human nature is? Bricut Birt: I can. It’s people before they rise in society. comicbooks.com