Life, 1929-04-12 · page 20 of 44
Life — April 12, 1929 — page 20: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains brief international news items and a single cartoon by **Rollin Kirby** (signed lower right). The cartoon depicts two people at a café, with the man asking the woman: *"Have you been out to Versailles? No, do they serve good cocktails there?"* The satire mocks **American tourist priorities during Prohibition**. Versailles—the historically significant French palace—is reduced to a mere backdrop for asking about cocktails. This reflects post-WWI American attitudes: wealthy Americans traveling to Europe prioritized drinking (illegal at home under Prohibition, 1920-1933) over cultural appreciation. The joke cynically suggests Americans abroad care more about obtaining alcohol than appreciating European history or architecture.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
LONDON-—G. B. Shaw was _in- formed that, because it was annotated by him, an American had paid $1500 for a copy of Locke’s Essay On Human Understanding. Shaw explained that it was his father-in-law who had done the annotating and that the book was not worth five cents. MEXICO ClITY—General Agra- monte, who just died at 98, drank whiskey, smoked cigarettes and ogled the girls to the last gasp. “I have drunk enough Bourbon to float a bat- ueship,” he boasted just before his de- cease, BERLIN—A new type of fishing has been invented. Copper cables are placed in a stream and the current passing between them kills all the fish in the vicinity. True sporting spirit! CAMBRIDGE, Eng.—Two Univer- sity students paraded the town in a car, drenching pedestrians with soda water siphons. The subtle English sense of humor. BERLIN—German hens are unpa- triotic, according to a statement by Dr. Hermann Dietrich, minister of food and agriculture. Though they cackled as loudly as foreign hens, they were averaging only eighty eggs an- nually, while the foreigners were lay- ing 150, he told the agricultural com- mittee of the Reichstag. BERLIN—Some years ago a boy named Eckstein was hired at a salary of eight cents a day as a professional applauder at a theater. To-day he fur- nishes four theaters with applauding service by his trained assistants, and makes a comfortable income. MOSCOW — Newspapers _ publish figures showing that 196 books have been written about Lenin. These have been published in thirty-two lan. guages and 817,000 copies have been printed. HARROGATE, Eng—E. J. Knowles, a plumber, was called in to fix a water pipe in a ballroom, where a fancy-dress dance was in progress. He won first prize for the best cos- tume. BOURNEMOUTH, Eng.—Mrs. Julia Hames, ninety and a_grand- mother, celebrated her birthday by learning to drive an automobile. She learned to ride a bicycle when she was sixty-two, but gave it up recently as dangerous. She sold her bicycle and bought a car. Meng | eMQUCRoUTE ta “Have you been out to Versailles?” “No, do they serve good cocktails there?” comicbooks.com