Life, 1929-07-12 · page 13 of 48
Life — July 12, 1929 — page 13: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page from *Life* magazine contains humorous observations about American rural and suburban life, likely from the 1920s-30s era based on the style. The left cartoon depicts a store scene with a dialogue joke about giving "a lump of sugar" to a child—appearing to reference old-fashioned parenting practices. The larger right illustration satirizes rural/country life with multiple vignettes: farmers' yards with automobiles, play-pens for infants, stores selling play-pens, a "vacant lot" where old Ford cars go "to die." The humor targets the modernization of American countryside—the intrusion of automobiles, suburban conveniences, and commercialism into traditionally rural spaces. The final caption about a borrowed hoe suggests tension between traditional rural neighborliness and newer transient suburban culture where people no longer know their neighbors well enough to share tools.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
11 With bystanders shouting, fagmen waving, horns honking and bells ring- ing, some engineers still fail to stop and wait for an auto to pass. - Buorto: Kin I give him a lump of sugar? Nature It’s nice to drive through the coun try and see the farmers’ front yards blooming with brightly colored sun flowers, hollyhocks and gasoline wn; pumps. can . F The stores sell play-pens which will keep the crawling infant from under fall your feet. If the youngster doesn’t want to stay in its play-pen, you can . solve the problem by lifting it out and getting in yourself. fes- 10d ‘ his Teacnter: Can you hear a thing id faster than you can see it? Terese Tessie: Yes'm, in tha talkies. ho . “Hey, Jones, can 1 borrow nd A vacant lot is a place where old your hose when you're Fords go when they die. through with it?” comicbooks.com