Life, 1928-05-17 · page 21 of 42
Life — May 17, 1928 — page 21: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This cartoon satirizes **Prohibition's expanding enforcement**, depicted as a menacing shadow creeping across the landscape. Two figures (appearing to be bootleggers or ordinary citizens) stand amid scattered prohibition-related materials, dwarfed by the ominous silhouette labeled "PROHIBITION" and "ISSUE." The "lengthening shadow" metaphor suggests Prohibition's growing, inescapable reach into American life. The barren, desolate setting—with a distant volcano—emphasizes the bleakness of the policy's consequences. The accompanying text discusses political speakers like Bowers who speak cautiously about contentious issues, and includes sardonic commentary on Boston's Back Bay Station fire (a real incident buried under other news) and London's Lord Mayor declining a New York visit due to excessive banquet obligations. The "Life Lines" section offers brief satirical quips, including one mocking prize-fighter Gene Tunney's claim that boxing is an "art"—a joke about opponents being "put on canvas." **Context**: This reflects 1920s American frustration with Prohibition's strict enforcement and pervasive social impact.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Tue Lenctueninc Snavow Bowers’ errand will be to say nothing ‘ery much, but to say it as if it were the sery pith of political wisdom. Of course be can do that. If he is as good a political speaker as he is a political writer, no one can do it better. But one could wish. that his whole mind would find untrammeled apression, for it is a well-stored mind, to good to be hampered on a consid- trble occasion by considerations of “safety first.” Is speaking in Lure last week of the way te fliers had crowded out notice of il the ordinary news, it was remarked that the South Station had burned up in boston. When the truth about that in- Gdent finally emerged by help of testi- mony of actual travelers, it appeared it ¥as not the South Station that burned, but the Back Bay Station. That, how- ever, is just as bad, or just as good, which- ever way you look at it. Neither of the stations in which pilgrims from New York to Boston are used to alight is up to the date. There are rumors that in reconstructing the Back Bay Station an attempt will be made to provide a place at which travelers will be glad to get off. Tue Lord Mayor of London has been invited to visit New York but declines, saying he has too much to do and is “booked for banquets nearly every night of his term of office, which has eight months yet to run.” Is not that an ap- palling prospect; cight months of ban- quets and only one digestion! After all, it may be that we do not fully appreciate Mayor Walker. E. S. Martin. — Life Lines — Gene Tunney says that prize- fighting should be classed as an art. The great artists of the ring, of course, are those who can put their opponents on canvas. LL At tHe rate our pugilists are ac- quiring culture, it won't be long until we hear jokes about the absent-minded prize- fighter. LL Paris says skirts must now be worn down to the knees. Some of us old- timers can remember when Paris said skirts must be worn up to the knees. Ah, for those good old days! comicbooks.com