Life, 1928-07-05 · page 26 of 50
Life — July 5, 1928 — page 26: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
**Top Cartoon:** "The Crime Club Chooses Its Book of the Month" depicts a chaotic office scene where multiple people are engaged in physical conflict over a book selection. The chaos satirizes the supposedly intellectual "Crime Club" - likely a reading group or literary society - reducing them to brawling absurdity, mocking pretentious book clubs and their members' inability to conduct civilized discussion. **Text Content:** The page contains humorous anecdotes mocking social pretension: a woman spending $235 on a dress at a lodge convention; another woman duped into buying a first edition of "Alice in Wonderland" for $600; and commentary on frivolous spending despite having trust funds. The satire targets wealthy people's poor financial judgment and social insecurity. **Bottom Cartoon:** "The Timid Soul" shows a timid man hesitating to approach a woman, torn between romantic hope and fear of rejection - a recurring Life character type representing masculine indecision and cowardice in courtship. The page satirizes American middle-to-upper-class social behavior: pretentiousness, conspicuous consumption, and gender anxiety.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
] until three sides of the wall were bespat-| trust, the only wonder being that he did tered and I had nought but the dreariest morsel remaining to be eaten, and when Katie did discover me in my plight her laughter was so immoderate that she con- tracted the hiccough and the nurse was obliged to give her first aid before she could put on the coffee. We do live and learn, however, and the next time I have occasion to peel a tomato, | shall know enough to steep it first in hot water. Lydia Loomis to luncheon, and she did tell me how she had been in Massachu- setts stopping at an inn where there was a lodge convention and how, when she was sitting one morning in the lobby in a frock for which she had laid out two hundred and thirty-five dollars, not to mention her new sables, a woman on some entertainment committee had ap- proached her and said, ‘Are you with the Elks?” so that now she does not feel like paying her dressmakers until she is sufficiently ready, which would be almost any time, meseems, considering the annuity left her by her grandfather, and yet when one thinks that Lyd, who never reads anything much beyond the literature attached to patent medicines, can be talked by an insignificant book- store salesman into buying a first edition of “Alice in Wonderland” for six hundred dollars, one cannot but feel that the wisest financial act of that shrewd old man’s career was tying L.’s income up in The Crime Club Chooses Its Book of the Month not appoint a commission for her. To dinner this night with Cozen Marie, of melon, clear soup, soft shell crabs, squab, string beans, soufflé potatoes, asparagus hollandaise and strawberry ice cream, all very fine, but I did righteously skip the roast and sweet. Baird Leonard. AN ACCOUNTANT MIGHT HELP “So you are shopping for an adding machine?” “Yes; poor Junior has been having so much trouble with his arithmetic lessons.” Give a politician enough rope and you'll have a pull. The Timid Soul Ou, tell me, should I take a chance? Her mouth is like a friendly shore Some mariner spies—but breakers roar; And so, he merely casts a glance, While fond hopes stnk, but wishes soar! Oh, tell me, should I take a chance? She might not sce me any more! But how did Whosis conquer France? And Moses lead his tourists through the sea? Her eyes just sparkle with romance— Steve Brotlc, let your spirit bide with me Leonard Bronner, Jr. Sue: What makes you so sure he kissed me yesterday? Ste: He was around this morning begging me to forgive him.