Life, 1929-04-05 · page 21 of 56
Life — April 5, 1929 — page 21: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page collects humorous international dispatches—brief satirical observations about 1920s global culture. The central cartoon shows a car careening off a Swiss mountain road, captioned "Why they sell comparatively few automobile horns in Switzerland"—the joke being that horns are unnecessary when reckless driving eliminates the need for warnings. The surrounding items mock contemporary trends: English women gambling at poker, a Danish reverend using jazz lyrics in sermons, a chimpanzee attacking jazz musicians in Paris, and (most pointedly) Bavarian church members beating girls for wearing short skirts because a preacher blamed cold weather on "immodest" clothing. Other items mock national stereotypes—Canadians' phone addiction, French wine consumption, Soviet censorship cutting "devil" from 22 mentions to six, and a desperate Parisian poet advertising for a wealthy wife. The humor relies on contrasting "civilized" progress (modern technology, efficient highways) with absurd provincial attitudes and bureaucratic nonsense. It's period satire targeting both international peculiarities and Jazz Age modernity itself.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
LONDON—Bridge is no longer bou ton among English society women. Poker is the popular game, and pots of £250 are no novelty. SHEFFIELD, England—A larger congregation is claimed by the Rev- erend W. A. Massey, of Brunswick Chapel, as a result of his using words of jazz songs as texts for sermons, We'll bet he hasn't used “I Faw Down and Go Boom”! PARIS—Infuriated by the music of a jazz band, an African chimpanzee broke its chain and attacked the mu- sicians in a cafe. Waiters armed with siphons subdued it. COPENHAGEN—The Danish dry organizations declare they intend form- ing an anti-saloon league based on the same principles and with the same methods as the American league. “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.” JERUSALEM—A_ paved highway will be laid along the approximate route taken by the Israelites in the Exodus. Efj- ciency—a 4o years’ journey in 40 minutes! CANNES, France—Sir john Lavery, the ar- tist, tells of a re- cent visit to Spain, where he entered a restaurant’ to order. mushrooms and a glass of milk. Not speak- ing Spanish, he sketched a mush- room and a cow for the waiter, who returned Promptly with an umbrella and a ticket for a bull fight! OTTAWA, Canada—The Cana- dians are the most loquacious people in the world. Statistics for 1928 show 221 phone conversations per capita, compared to 205 in the United States. PARIS—France produced one and a half billion gallons of wine in 1928. In addition, she imported a half bil- lion gallons from Algeria. Come on, you American tourists! LONDON—Cambridge is offering a new universal language, Panoptic English. The vocabulary has only 500 words. Lawyers are fighting it! CANNES, France—King Christian of Denmark bet “the limit” and lost it at every race he played during the season here. Friends were sympathiz- ing until his majesty explained that his “limit” was $4. BAVARIA—A_ bob-hating village council decreed that women who visit- ed the barber should pay a tax of $12. The women went on a cooking strike. The tax was called off! Why they sell comparatively few automobile horns in Switzerland. KARLSBAD, Czechoslovakia—Four girls were beaten by members of a church congregation at the village of Buchau because the village preacher said a spirit appeared to him and told him the recent severe cold wave was caused by the wearing of short skirts. They should see our gals in July. BUDAPEST, Hungary—Anton Ko- zarek, the new state executioner, is one of the best-dressed men in Buda- pest and most meticulous about his clothes on and off the scaffold. He wears a high silk hat, white spats and a frock coat. Kozarek is the son of a former hangman. LONDON—Funerals for which they are paid on the instalment plan are now being conducted by many un- dertakers. RIO DE JANEIRO—Every grain of Brazilian coflee will hereafter be stamped with a trademark. Now, come on, you salt manufacturers! MOSCOW —A play by Sa- vine was censored by the Soviets be- cause the word “devil” appeared 22 times, —Per- formance was not permitted until “devil” was cut to six times. PARIS—A poet who “soon ex- pects to become famous” — adver- tises for a wife with sufficient in- come to keep him at his writing. “A foreigner will do,” he adds, comicbooks.com