Life, 1929-03-15 · page 20 of 44
Life — March 15, 1929 — page 20: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page from *Life* presents humorous brief news items from around the world, exemplifying the magazine's satirical approach to international oddities. The main cartoon depicts a formal dinner where one guest asks another, "Are you expecting someone?"—the joke being that many chairs sit empty, suggesting social awkwardness or rejection. The text items mock various cultural and social absurdities: Cuba banning drums out of paternalistic fear; a bizarre family marriage in Holland; Montreal's naive faith that criminals have "decency"; a Welsh postmaster resigning over an impossibly long town name; Scottish nationalism promoting kilts as economical; London using firemen as movie censors; Siam's king cutting champagne spending while distributing stockings to encourage women's clothing; a Turkish militia commander censoring cinema; a 100-year-old woman crediting her happiness to avoiding marriage; and courts hiring babies to manipulate judicial sympathy. The satire targets bureaucratic overreach, cultural pretension, and human irrationality across nations.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
HAVANA—The Cuban govern- ment has prohibited the beating of the African bongo drum. The restriction carries heavy penalties on the ground that the monotonous reverberations in- duce a state of savagery in ignorant listeners and a state of irritation in others. LL AMSTERDAM, —Holland—Zwolle, in the province of Overijssel, reports the marriage of a man to his grand- mother. His father, marrying a sec- ond time, chose a girl of 20 whose The son married the him his father’s step- mother was 45. later, making father. aL MONTREAL—The Fellowship Of The East has been formed to reform rum-runners on the international bor- der. They will establish personal con- tact, and appeal to the rum runners’ “sense of decency.” aL LONDON—Mr. Crick was ap- pointed postmaster of a village in Wales. When he arrived at his post, he found the town was named Llan- fairpwilgwngvllgogerye. He diately resigned. imme- LONDON—Wear the kilt for com- fort and economy, argue thrifty and patriotic Scottish Nationalists. A kilt will outlast many pairs of trousers. Old subscribers are writing to the newspapers claiming records for kilt endurance. One Scottish peer has worn the same kilt off and on for thirty years, and it looks as fresh as ever. LL LONDON—The clerk to the Lon- don County Council admits that, lack- ing officials, firemen are called upon to act as movie censors for the city. Here, we employ plumbers. LL BANGKOK, Siam—The king and queen of Siam celebrated the introduc- tion of western civilization into their country by cutting out the $300,000 champagne bill and distributing half a million pairs of silk stockings to Sia- mese women in order to encour- age them to wear short skirts. a “Are you expecting someone?” CASTAMONI, Turkey—This town was recently thrown into an uproar in the midst of the presentation of an American film. Following an amorous passage Hikmet Bey, commander of the town’s militia, burst into the oper- ator’s booth, gave the operator a cuffing and tore the film to shreds. ~ LL BOSTON, England—Miss Wilhel- mina Robinson has reached the age of 100 years. “T detest men,” she avowed, “and | put down my long and happy life to the fact that I was never foolish enough to marry onc.” aL MANCHESTER, Eng.—The prac tice of hiring babies for courtroom ap: pearance is on the increase in this lo cality. A tiny mite clinging patheti- cally to its mother invariably arouses the sympathy of the court. comicbooks.com