Life — February 13, 1931 — page 6: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# Analysis: "The Art of Waiting for a Train" This is a humorous advice article by Tom Simi about how to pass time while waiting for trains—a common experience for early 20th-century travelers. The accompanying illustration shows people dining and socializing at what appears to be a station restaurant or hotel. The satire is gentle: the article mocks the tedium of train delays by offering increasingly absurd suggestions (walk around the block, go to a movie, visit friends with a fake name). The joke is that waiting for trains was genuinely annoying and time-consuming in this era, so the author provides increasingly elaborate ways to avoid actually sitting at the station. The cartoon caption about wearing "B.V.D.'s all year round" is an advertisement reference to the underwear brand, a typical Life magazine style of mixing content with product placement.