Life — December 14, 1928 — page 7: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# "The Man Who Wanted a Stamp for One Christmas Card" This cartoon by Guyas Williams satirizes bureaucratic absurdity. A lone man in a hat appears to need just one postage stamp for a single Christmas card. Instead of a simple transaction, he faces an enormous, snaking queue of people—depicted as identical figures carrying boxes—waiting at what appears to be a post office window. The satire critiques the inefficiency and overcrowding of postal services, likely during the Christmas season when mail volume surges dramatically. The contrast between the man's minimal need (one stamp) and the overwhelming bureaucratic machinery (represented by the massive line) highlights how institutional systems become grotesquely disproportionate to simple public requests. It's a commentary on modern administrative frustration.