Life, 1928-10-12 · page 13 of 44
Life — October 12, 1928 — page 13: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This six-panel comic depicts a simple domestic scenario: a woman hanging laundry outdoors encounters progressively stronger wind that ultimately blows her clothes away entirely. The final panel shows her empty-handed as garments scatter. The title "The Helpful Breeze" is ironic—what seems initially beneficial (wind to dry clothes) becomes destructive. This appears to be gentle humor about household mishaps rather than political satire. The page also contains "The Balconey Buster," a poem about a rodeo accident involving various named characters (California Herbie, Tiger Al, Antibank). These are humorous tall tales typical of Life's satirical cowboy/frontier content, playing on exaggerated Western stereotypes popular in early 20th-century American humor.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Fe Il ‘zB g8 Es: White faction ronize esident und. ord of and be n four Tue Hevrrut Breeze The Baloney Buster AT an interstate rodeo In the fall of "Twenty-eight Several jaspers drawed a kayo From a certain sorrel skate Who was listed in the entries By the name of Antibunk And who mangled up them gentries Into piles of human junk. First come California Herbie, Who had wrangled some renown Ata pachydermous derby In a roarin’ Kansas town, But when Herbie tried to master This here Antibunk cayuse He corralled so much disaster That it shook his gizzard loose. Then across the cast horizon Tiger Al come into view; He was rated simply pizen Bustin’ bunkum square in two, But this Antibunk tornado Slipped the Tiger such a fall Every Tammany bravado Felt the jar to Hokum Hall. Then come old Topeka Charlie And was positively sunk When he up and tried to parley With this critter Antibunk; And when Joe, the Ozark Wonder From the Plains of Little Rock, Met the nag and buckled under Distant Texas felt the shock. And we thinks here’s one hyena Too adept for human skill, Till across the chawed arena Ambled Oklahoma Bill, And he gazed upon the critter And he sorta scratched his head, Then he chawed a Wrigley fritter And this is what he said: “I'm a modest kind of jigger And I never like to brag, But you know, I sorta figger I can ride that ragin’ nag; I've rode tigers, mules and camels And the ellyphunt beside, And I'll tackle any mammals Wearin’ hair or hoofs or hide.” Then he clumb aboard the leather And he loosened up the reins, While we sorta wondered whether We could find his dang remains, But I hope to be a sucker Even bigger than I am If that wild, ferocious bucker Wasn't gentle as a lamb. And I'm game to bet a quarter Oklahoma wasn’t throwed For the reason he was smarter Than the critter that he rode; And I make this here assumption To the lads who took a flop: If they had a horse’s gumption, Why, they mighta stayed on top. Earl H, Emmons. WAKM-HEARTED .. Fins Janrror: Well, Sam, I see where the mercury was down to three below last night. Stconp Janrror: Yeah. Won't be so very long now before we'll have to turn on the heat. SELF-CONTROL FOR CELEBRITIES Wuen you've walked a mile for that blindfold test and then failed to pick an Old Gold cigarette....be nonchalant .++-light a Murad! New Measure—Sixteen ounces make one pint; two pints make whoopee. comicbooks.com