Life, 1929-03-08 · page 12 of 44
Life — March 8, 1929 — page 12: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page satirizes exotic or bizarre cultural practices through cartoon vignettes, presented in the style of Robert Ripley's famous "Believe It or Not!" feature. The cartoons mock what the author presents as absurd customs from unnamed locations: - A group that eats gummy candies but never swallows them - A 50-year-old man who has never read anything - People called "Pedestrians" who somehow drive cars without harm - A religious sect worshipping a man-god named "Mencken" with reprinted green bibles - A place called "Mateewan" with "Prohibition" laws by 1950 The satire targets contemporary American absurdities by presenting them as exotic foreign curiosities, mocking ignorance, religious fervor, traffic safety, and alcohol prohibition—all recognizable to 1920s-30s American audiences.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
There are persons in America who distend their mouths with a queer gummy substance called “chicle”, which they cat all day but never appear to swallow for sustenance. Also, in this same inexplicable land, we find a queer sect of “Intelligentsia”, who worship a man-god called “Menc- ken”; and whose strange green bible is freshly re-printed every month, Comparable to the “fakuns” of India, are the members of @ queer group calling themselves “Pedestrians”: who permit heav- ily laden automo- biles to pass across their prostrate forms, apparently without lethal ef- fect. o A a BLIND There is a native of To- peka, Kansas, who, though fifty years of age, has never read a line of Eddie Guest. And last, yet least credible of all, there dwells in a place called “Mattewan”, an individual who firmly beliepes his native land will have a ie “Prohibition” by 1951 e RONER nen Believe it or not, Mr. Ripley! comicbooks.com dr