Life, 1928-11-09 · page 9 of 52
Life — November 9, 1928 — page 9: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains satirical commentary on Prohibition enforcement during the 1920s-early 1930s alcohol ban. **Top cartoon**: Two men in a car discuss an artist who "killed his wife with a hammer." The punchline—"No, but I know his work"—is a dark joke suggesting the artist's reputation matters more than morality, satirizing society's misplaced values. **"Progress of Prohibition Enforcement" section**: Reports absurd contradictions: government agents seizing liquor while enforcement remains ineffective. The accompanying cartoon shows enforcement officials discovering hidden alcohol, mocking the futility of Prohibition policies. **Bottom items**: Brief humorous pieces, including a solicitor's request for celebrity cigarette endorsements, satirizing commercialism. Overall, the page mocks Prohibition's failures and American society's priorities during this era of widespread alcohol smuggling and official hypocrisy.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
“Little Rambles with Serious Thinkers Iv old days, a Napoleon had to be short. If he had been a little taller he would have been killed by the first of the bullets that went an inch above his head. —Arthur Brisbane, Surely some way ought to be found to ‘tect the moral boys from the immoral shool girls—A. B. See. The Italian press is the freest in the world. —Benito Mussolini. Does the barber who cuts your hair try to do his best for you? If he doesn’t, per- haps it’s a proof that you haven't tried to show your best side to the barber. —Edgar A. Guest. Iam infallible—John Roach Straton. Progress of Prohibition Enforcement Assstant Secretary Lowman of the Treasury Department in charge of Pro- hibition enforcement announces, “We have a special squad of agents for detail to colleges if they are annoyed by speak- aasies or bootleggers,”” and a messenger is caught with a bag full of pyhiekey in the Treasury Department Building; five per- sons in Los Angeles die of the effects of wood alcohol, and a jealous lover kills his rival by getting him to drink poisoned Ale. Harvoys “You know that artist that killed his wife with a hammer?” “No, but I know his work.” liquor; rum chasers off Cape May, New Jersey, fire machine guns at luminous jellyfish, thinking them floating . whiskey kegs, and an elk-breeding farm at Middle- boro, Mass., is raided by dry agents; a high-class Chicago speakeasy is bombed for refusing to buy alcohol from the local syndicates, and a man in Toledo, Ohio, sells gin from an automobile parked at Foreman (to pneumatic drillers): Do your best, boys. I got a tip there's a coupla dentists in the crowd watching yer. the curb; in Baltimore four tank cars of pure alcohol are missing, and the W. C. T. U. of Sheridan, Wyoming, adopts a resolution cautioning its members not to drink cider after it is twenty-four* hours old; a German correspondent informs his government that the United States pro- duces ten million more gallons of wine than before Prohibition, and Florida residents are described as making rum out of cocoanut New York Harbor rum chaser official runs down a shipment of whiskey aboard a fishing schooner with the aid of a dream after eating a Welsh rarebit, and a horse is found intoxicated in Brooklyn; the W. C. T. U. objects to whiskey’s being released to the Red Cross to help the hurricane sufferers of the South, and Bishop William T. Manning is converted to Prohibition. W. W. Scott. RESPONSE TO A YOUNG LADY WHO ASKED FOR AN AUTOGRAPH I onty write my name below Because you asked me to; and so When later on my scrawl you see Don’t murmur, “Who in hell was he?” Arthur Guiterman, THAT'S BRAVERY Soricrror: Would you indorse our cigarettes for two thousand dollars, sir? Cecrsaity: For two thousand dollars I'd smoke the damned things. comicbooks.com