Life, 1928-04-26 · page 6 of 35
Life — April 26, 1928 — page 6: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains two distinct pieces: **Top cartoon** ("Bonnie? Oh, Mama!"): A domestic scene where a man lies on a couch while a woman (presumably his wife) sits nearby. The caption indicates she's refusing to leave the house, suggesting marital conflict. The humor appears to derive from a wife preventing her husband from going out, likely to an illicit meeting. **"The Rookie: A Study"**: An extended article defining the "rookie"—a novice baseball player. The text humorously catalogs his stereotypical traits: physical awkwardness, poor coordination, gullibility, and incompetence. It's a satirical character sketch mocking inexperienced ballplayers, with mentions of how he behaves on and off the field. Both pieces exemplify *Life*'s typical early 20th-century satirical approach: domestic humor and sports comedy targeting recognizable social types.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
4 Bossie: Oh, Mama! The man is going to pass— Mama (napping): Very well. I bid six diamonds, The Rookie: A Study (With a Brief Note on Adaptation to Climate) HAT is a rookie? Shall we y that a rookie is a ball- player who aspires to a job with a Big League team? Let's. It will probably be loads of fun. He is also known as busher,”” “colt,” “‘re- eruit,” “kid,” “yannigan,” “young- ster’; and his age ranges from seventeen to thirty-eight. He comes to a Big League team with the recommendation of a Big League scout or a college coach or a cut-rate druggist in Beeville, Tex., or the brother-in-law of a second cousin of the Secretary of the Chamber of Commerce of the town from which the manager of the Big League team ran away as a boy. He is supposed to be a little damp behind the ears and extremely shrunken between them, Volumes have been written about his braggadocio, his shyness, his il- literateness, his studiousness, his apacity as an eater, his tendency to treat the little clothes-nets in Pull- man berths as if they were ham- mocks, According to sports writers, he has been known to protest, “I can’t eat again,” when a Pullman porter has announced, “Third call foh dinnah.” He has also been known to sit up all night in a hotel room trying to extinguish the electric bed-lamp by blowing at it. There seem to be all sorts of rookies. Some are “likely lads,” some are “phenoms,” some “morn- ing glories," some “kids who are bound to be heard from one of these some just plain “men of Before we go any farther it should be admitted that it is not easy to isolate and definitely label the type. to pick out a ball- player and “This—this, gentle- men"—or, if there are ladies pres- ent,—“‘this, ladies and gentlemen, is a rookie.” No, we must be more sci- entific than that. We must forget the legends of the sports writers. In short, we must observe the subject in his adaptation to climate. If a ballplayer comes off the field looking annoyed when the game has been called on account of rain, then and only then can we say that he is a rookie. Tup. Visual Sample ALESGIRL: And what kind of step-ins would you like to buy, sir? Customer: Like those the girl sitting there is wearing. How Mrs. Revere Might Have Altered American History UST a minute, Mister F ti “My dear, I’ve got to.. “Don't try to bamboozle me with honeyed words! You're not going to budge out of this house to- night!” “But, my dear, I've just got word that...” “I suppose you've an important conference downtown!” o, it isn’t...” “Or some friend is deathly ill!" “No, my dear, I...” . “Paul Revere! Are you having an affair with some woman?” “Why, darling! Of course not! But, really, my dear, I must go out for a while. The British are com- ing!” “That's a new one!” “Honestly, my dear, I’ve just re- ceived word. . “Who from?” “Some friends just waved a lan- tern, and that’s a signal...” “Piffe!” “T've got to ride all over the arid Fiddlesticks! Do you think I'm going to believe anything like that?” “My dear, I...” “Take off your coat and hat! I said NO and I mean NO!” Chet Johnson. N China a debtor has the door taken off his house.’ “Migolly! He can’t even say he’s in conference.” “You know, Bill, little did I think, when I learned to write, that it would come in handy some day.” comicbooks.com