Life, 1928-07-26 · page 20 of 36
Life — July 26, 1928 — page 20: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This 1920s *Life* magazine page contains three satirical pieces: **Main Cartoon**: A six-panel sequence mocking a Treasury Secretary (likely Andrew Mellon, serving under Harding/Coolidge). The caption ironically compares him to Alexander Hamilton. The panels show a man increasingly distressed by financial documents, culminating in him buried under papers—satirizing his management of national finances during the prosperous 1920s, likely critiquing either fiscal policy or personal integrity. **"Prosperity" Joke**: A brief quip about someone named Jake becoming a Hollywood director and changing so much he's unrecognizable—mocking the nouveau riche pretensions of early film industry figures. **"Safety First" Verse**: Criticizes journalists for using "alleged" excessively when reporting scandals, protecting subjects legally while avoiding truth-telling. **"Mrs. Pep's Diary"**: A humorous diary entry satirizing upper-middle-class women's anxieties about spending, food obsessions, and intellectual pretensions (mourning the loss of romantic heroes like Villon and Columbus after learning historical facts).
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
“Tue Greatest Secretary of THE Treasury Since ALEXANDER HaAmILton.” PROSPERITY Vickers: I understand Jake is a big director in Hollywood now. Wicxers: Yes, he’s so changed you wouldn’t ‘“‘no” him. SAFETY FIRST Futt many writers for the Press, When garbing news in gala dress, Have very circumspectly hedged Behind that saving word, “Alleged.” MRS. PEP’S DIARY Hard at my accounts all the morning, my bank balance these days resembling that of the treasurer of a bazaar committee after al] expenses have been paid, and I am re. solved not to go inside a shop until September, when, with any luck soever, I shall again be solvent. Then to pick up Jessie Smith, and we to Sheepshead Bay along the pleasant Ocean Parkway, stop- ping for luncheon at Tappen's, of crab flake cocktail, chicken gumbo, steamed clams, lobster, broilers, asparagus, ice cream and coffee, with spring onions, radishes and watermelon pickle on the side, a deal of food, methought, for two dollars and fifty cents per capita, yet we did cat it all. Thence to Lundy's fish market, where we did provision ourselves with baskets to carry back to town, Sam, whose middle name is St. Clair, saying later that if my current passion for sea- food does not abate, he can change said name to Steamed Clam without working any havoc with the marking of his linen. Along the main street of Coney Island before heading homeward, and it did strike me that another of the first signs of age is to look dispassionately at a carrous or roller coaster. Home betimes and at my books, reading in a fine new edition of Frangois Villon that he was by no means the romantic hero which most of us be- lieve him, that he loved only with his senses and that all his verse about love is mediocre, and what we shall do if these biographers keep destroying our il lusions I know not. Lord! I shall never forget my feelings when I learned for the first time that Moses did not write the Pentateuch nor Columbus discover Amer- ica, and even now I do hear things almost every day which incline me more strongly to the conviction that ignorance is bliss. Reading after dinner in ‘Early to Bed,” another novel of young people in Paris, and I did mark it as strange that Bijie O'Brien could wash her neck with a piece of ice from her tumbler at Ciro’s, and yet pass the money for the bill under the table to one of her escorts. July Up very betimes, because of the July humidity, Sam vouchsafing the wish that he were a bird, albeit what percentage he should derive there- from I cannot perceive, since birds do comicbooks.com