Life, 1929-02-15 · page 18 of 44
Life — February 15, 1929 — page 18: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
The top cartoon depicts four men outside an "Auto Repairs" shop, with one saying "Yeah, we're fighting over a woman—she ain't much!" This is a humorous domestic scene suggesting marital discord or romantic rivalry—common satirical fodder about working-class life. Below is "Mrs. Pep's Diary" by Baird Leonard, a serialized humor column. The January 28-29 entries describe domestic observations: a preacher's sermon about church news, gossip about neighbors (Dr. Bell, Jim Mitchell), and commentary on sensational books from publishers. The accompanying illustration shows someone on schoolhouse steps. The humor derives from middle-class social pretension and small-town gossip—typical Life magazine satire of the era targeting provincial American manners and morality.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
“Yeah, we're fighting over a woman—she ain’t much!” Nes Lops Diary January 28— Awake be- times and at the journals, finding Dr. Bell’s preach- ment at the Cathedral yes- terday the sanest talk that ever I heard in my life frora a pulpit, and were there more clergymen with such in- telligence church pews would soon be in the hands of ticket scalpers. Dr. Bell did state that the four things which feed the soul are truth, beauty, love and religion, but were I making such a list myself I should include humour. The rest of the morning's news such drivel that it were better to be sitting on the floor playing with blocks or making paper chains than be obliged to read it, in especial where the Kaiser at his birthday festivities in Doorn was likened to both St. Paul and Martin Luther, and I cannot but think in the latter connection that if he had occasion to throw anything at the devil it would not be an inkpot. Marge Booth- by to luncheon with the news that poor Jim Mitchell is in his cups again, albeit by Baird Leonard not so seriously as heretofore, having | made a compact with himself that he will quit imbibing as soon as his stuffed “It beats me what he sees in that place.” moose head rolls its eyes and snaps a him. Marge did also tell how somebody had given Jim six silver cups in a pigskin case which had pleased him mighty much, and how, missing one of them temporarily en route to a football game, he had immediately tossed the other five into the roadside with the comment that they were now no longer of any use, and how once, when foxed with liquor, he had gone back to the wrong office, thiak- ing he was still with his old brokerage firm. This day a great influx of crim books from the publishers, and, much 3 [ delight in them, I do wish that there could be a law against any sex in them, forasmuch as at the most exciting point of the narrative, the young sleuth is charge of the litmus paper tests or whzt not begins to wonder if his slight attra tion towards the girl so unaccountably mixed up in the foul business may nt eventually ripen into something deepe, and who, as Samuel says, gives a whoop. January 29.—By the first post came the ‘horoscope for which 1 did lay out tweoty dollars, and so thick was it with detail 3 to the various planets’ influence upon mj destiny that I could make nought of % but an accompanying letter from th comicbooks.com