Life, 1928-07-12 · page 26 of 40
Life — July 12, 1928 — page 26: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
**The Main Cartoon**: The large illustration depicts a massive mechanical or robotic military commander addressing soldiers below, instructing them to act as "Good-will Ambassadors" in a foreign country. This satirizes American military interventionism and cultural imperialism—the contradiction between aggressive military presence and the pretense of friendly diplomatic relations. The towering, impersonal machine suggests the dehumanizing nature of militarism. **The Text Stories**: "Success!" humorously depicts a man intimidated by a grand bank, nearly unable to conduct his business. "Nowhere" jokes about rural American desolation—a town reduced to "tin cans and a Ford agency." **"Little Rambles with Serious Thinkers"**: A collection of quotations from celebrities and public figures offering platitudes on romance, religion, government, and morality. The page mocks how the famous dispense obvious wisdom as if profound. **Historical Context**: This appears from the 1920s, reflecting post-WWI anxieties about American military presence abroad and the era's celebrity culture where public figures' every utterance was treated as meaningful.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
SST ad Lad oon ratded ad 13 1 | ComManver: Remember, boys, this is a foreign country and I want you all to consider yourselves “Good-will Ambassadors.” Success! I stoop in the lobby of the Fifty-third National Bank completely overawed by the massive marble pillars and the rows of finely grilled cages extending until they blended into the horizon. Seemingly, I had been completely un- aware until now of the magnificence of this immense interior structure. Surely, compared with all this cold, regal splen- dor, I was no more than the most in- finitesimal of atoms. I seemed suddenly devoid of personality; alone, friendless and forsaken in a frosty, clammy world. Never, never could I summon up courage enough to go through with what I had planned. Why, heavens, my tiny savings account must be completely buried in the ledgers of this money mausoleum. I could never, never have the nerve to... . But suddenly a wave of fierce deter- mination conquered my weak knees and palpitating heart. I took hold of myself, squared my shoulders, walked straight to the nearest lobby desk and filled my fountain pen. James L. Dilley. NOWHERE Desert Travecer: How far is it to the next gas station? Native: Sixty miles to Blue Gulch. Travecer: Is that much of a town? Native: "Tain’t no town at all. She’s just a pile of tin cans and a Ford agency. Little Rambles with ‘Scriol Thinkers I Fino it very difficult to spend properly, ~John D. Rockefeller Generally speaking, when a woman must choose between the man she loves and the man who loves her, presuming that the men are of equal worth, I think she does well to take the man she prefers, —Dorothy Dix, I sometimes think it’s too bad we can't see the top of the Great Pyramid from the top of the Woolworth Tower. We should all be much more optimistic if we could.— Bruce Barton. In the last analysis I am an optimist be cause I believe in God. —William Lyon Phelps. A lonesome man is always cured of his lonesomeness if he can find an attractive woman to whom he can talk. —Bruno Lessing. Many people build castles in the air. They are gifted with a vivid imagination, —Bernarr Macfadden, We know that governments are becom- ing more and more responsive to their people's wishes.—Frank B. Kellogg There are too many people going around these days calling God a liar. Think of calling God a liar!’ That's what a lot them old scientists did—Isaac Newtoa and Galileo and the rest of 'em. —Wilbur Glenn Voliva. I sce the hand of God in the erection of the Republican platform. —Rev. Robert A. Greenwell. IT am a friend of Secretary Mellon. —Harry K. Thaw. You never can be certain until you hear from the voters.—William E. Borah. Woman is of much coarser fiber, of much less delicate sensibility and romantic sem sitiveness than man. —George Jean Nathan. Women are more honest, earnest and sincere than men.—Arthur Brisbane. After all the younger generation isn’t 9 much different.—Edgar A. Guest. We are just entering the golden age of the foot.—C. C. Pyle. comicbooks.com