Life, 1928-06-21 · page 7 of 38
Life — June 21, 1928 — page 7: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This four-panel cartoon by L. Klein depicts a camel repeatedly bucking off two fat tourists. The title "The Straw" references the idiom "the straw that broke the camel's back"—meaning a final, minor burden causing collapse after accumulated strain. The humor works through visual exaggeration: the rotund Western travelers (identifiable by their hats and clothing) are repeatedly thrown by the increasingly agitated camel. The cartoon satirizes tourist behavior, likely critiquing Western travelers' assumed entitlement or carelessness toward animals and local customs in colonial-era travel destinations. The accompanying editorial text discusses atoms and Central Africa, suggesting this appeared during a period of growing Western colonial presence and scientific advancement.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Our Own Brisbane Editorials Te sun is 92,000,000 miles from the arth. All our light, an eminent German sientist tells us, comes from the sun. Without the sun our days would be as dark as the nights are now, all vegeta- tion would wither and die, the water upon the earth’s surface would freeze, and mankind would become sightess like the fish in Mammoth Cave. Are you doing anything to preserve the sun? eee Tue atom is so small that 10,000,000 of them could sit on the point of an ordi- nary pin. Electrons are so much smaller that 5,000,000 of them could sit on the point of a pin such as an atom might use. Some day the microscopists may discover something so much smaller than the molecule that 2,000,000,000,000 of them could sit on the point of a molecule sized pin. The average man would do well to think about this, wherever he is sitting. How much do you know or care about far-off Central Africa? In a region there half as large as the United States the inhabitants have never seen an automobile or airplane, never seen a motion picture, never heard a radio concert. They live on fish, roots and herbs, they pluck their beards out as the Indians did, and they go about half naked. How would you like to go about half naked? Elmer C. Adams. OUT OF THE PICTURE “I pon’r think the movies will turn out as many good comedies this year as they did last.” @ “Why, isn’t President Coolidge going to wear his cowboy suit this summer?” New York Fairy Story: Once upon time was Mayor Walker. comicbooks.com