Life, 1928-11-23 · page 33 of 36
Life — November 23, 1928 — page 33: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page mixes satirical commentary with advertising typical of 1920s American magazines. **"Chinese Love Song"** is a darkly ironic poem critiquing the Chinese famine relief crisis, where impoverished families were selling daughters into marriage. The narrator romanticizes a girl but ultimately cannot afford her $200 dowry—the satire exposes how poverty reduces human beings to commodities while highlighting Western indifference to Eastern suffering. **"Wrong Number!"** is a brief comedic anecdote about a Black cook answering a telephone and responding sarcastically to a caller asking what number they've reached. The humor relies on period stereotypes. **"Breaking In Your Smoking Taste"** advertises pipe tobacco and Squibb's Dental Cream, suggesting careful pipe maintenance ensures pleasant smoking. **Left column** features the Lamp-o-Lighter cigarette lighter and other gift advertisements. The page reflects 1920s attitudes: casual racial humor, commercial frivolity juxtaposed with reports of international tragedy, and early consumer marketing culture.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
LIFE | from Madison Square Garden, as the speediest radio reporter. After clouding up G on announcers in general, it’s a treat to find a boy who realizes that he is broad- 66 casting a sporting event and not making a speech at the Annual Banquet of the Realtors’ Boosters Club. 4N Agnes Smith. ‘FATHER do BE Yourselt” Chinese Love Song (Marriageable girls of the famine area in China are being sold as a means of relieving the distress, and some of the more beautiful bring as much as $200 in gold.) I Lookep on your rose-petal cheeks, dear, and yearned To buy you and make you my own; My love was a flame that incessantly burned, My heart was a smoke-blackened stone That surely, I thought, would grow cold be ice Without your caresses and such— But two hundred bucks was your daddy's best price, And that, little girl, was too much. What joy might be ours could we live out our lives In a plum-blossom house by the sea, Where you'd be the fairest of almond- eyed wives, And gentlest of husbands I'd be! e Our days would be pages of laughter and smokin song— Alas! these are vain dreams indeed. Farewell, dainty maiden; may life know you long— A fifty-tael dame is my speed. Don Cameron. What if the lamp-o-Lighter is your favorite Christmas ; Present/ Men usually take a great deal of time and trouble to “break in” a new pipe. They know a cool, sweet smoke is their reward, WRONG NUMBER! A Necro cook answered the telephone the other ther | “Yt wont wear out—even though morning, and a cheerful voice inquired: “What Résson exactly’ the sims wal Then everybody insists on using it number is this? ; y say, and it’s too amusing and prac- The cook, in no mood for wiffing questions,| for your mouth! . aulty, iical for words.” said with some asperity: ‘*You-all ought to know. Early every day give it a bit of Lamp-o-lighter, you know, is the You done called it."* time and care—give it a thorough v telectric cigarette, pi —Charleston News and Courier. ° . ch ery eon eatclee Fic cigaret 'e, pipe jarleston News and Courier brushing with Squibb’s Dental als it ights the lighter. Another, Cream. Then notice how much d by and it turns out the lamp, or on, Ir is easy to identify the owner of the cooler and sweeter your favorite if . * eine smoke is. Smart-looking, gold cord—lighter car: he is the one who, after you pull the door shut, always opens it again and slams it harder. hes in red, green, blue and amber. —Detroit News. Squibb’s tones the whole mouth ot by Screws into socket and holds lamp —soothes it—above all, it gives bulb. Decorative, practical, mare velous for gifts. “Q.: How should Cavalleria Rusticana be pro- you a fighting array of tiny Milk bes | So. ant the beter shops MAG Te is, rgoounesd kabwablemtwyeminya:| Of irra tp gr ig ars posi eas atid mouth acids and keep the brea pt 5 or write Fon singers only.—Cowntry Gentleman. sweet and the mond healthy: For A. W. FRANKLIN, INC. a trim, snappy smoking taste, use ormal fm 11 West 42d Street, NY.C. Squibb’s Dental Cream frequently. ae Lire is publishing its usual DOG 4oc at any druggist. =e is CALENDAR this year, at the usual Copyright 1928 by E.R. Squibb & Sons ity. price of one dollar a copy. When : antes ng for preparing your holiday list, don’t GUARD THE the Smartest Gitt nartest Gitt forget the DOG CALENDAR; it always makes such an acceptable giftl Orders will be filled in the order of their receipt. DANGER LINI comicbooks.com