Life — April 19, 1928 — page 9: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# Analysis of Life Magazine Page 7 **"A Good Business Man"** depicts a judge sentencing a defendant for selling scrap metal ("old iron, metal and bones") to the public. The cartoon satirizes wartime profiteering and fraud—selling worthless or salvaged materials while misrepresenting them as valuable goods. **"The Cart Before the Horse"** shows a customer ordering an absurdly long list of specific items from what appears to be a general store or pharmacy, growing increasingly desperate and demanding. It satirizes both consumer entitlement and post-WWI scarcity, mocking people's unrealistic expectations when goods are limited. **The divorce-scene cartoon** shows a woman telling her taxi driver she's engaged to him to escape her marriage—satirizing either desperate marriages or the cynicism of urban romance. These pieces reflect 1920s concerns: fraud, consumerism, and social disruption post-war.