Life, 1929-04-26 · page 30 of 36
Life — April 26, 1929 — page 30: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This satirical page contains multiple short jokes typical of early 20th-century humor magazines: **Main cartoon ("Tragedies in the Homes of the Rich"):** A wealthy person's home is flooded with water while occupants slip and fall. The caption "I will certainly speak to Parsons about this!" satirizes how the rich blame servants (Parsons, likely their butler) for disasters, deflecting personal responsibility. **Other jokes target:** - A woman bragging her baby is "getting married next week"—absurdist humor about rushing children into adulthood - A teacher confused about French Revolutionary history (mixing up Louis XIII, XV, XIV)—mocking educational incompetence - A prisoner who improves physically in jail, suggesting civilian life (especially during Prohibition—"Volstead law") is more brutal than incarceration - A houseguest warned not to clean up fallen ceiling plaster—dark humor about negligent homeowners The page reflects 1920s American anxieties: class tensions, educational failure, Prohibition's social chaos, and domestic disorder. The humor is observational rather than explicitly political.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Traceptes in THE Homes or THE Ricu. “I will certainly speak to Parsons about this!” 7 — —- —— Mrs. Hicens had just paid the last instalment on a perambulator. Suop Assistant: Thank you, madam. How is the baby getting on now? Mrs. Hicatns: Oh, he’s quite all right. He's getting married next week! —Pearson's. During recent excavations a number of skeletons were found in a cave ranged along the walls in a sitting posture, There was evidently a short- age of dancing partners even in those days. —Humorist. —Brown Jug. \ a Brown (To Employer): Jones won't be ot the office this week, sir, owing to a bereare ment in his family. Espiover: Oh, indeed, and who's dead this time? Brown: Jones, sir. —Everybody's Weekly Teacner—Who was the king of France during the Revolution? Conrusep Stevent—Louis the Thirteenth—no, the Fifteenth—no, the Fourteenth—no, the—well, anyhow, he was in his teens. © —Yale Record. Not long ago a Times Squarefarer was housed in the Tombs for tittering at the Volstead law, reports Willard Keefe, our Tombs representative. Un able to get bail, he did six weeks there, when a pal called. The chum marveled at the fellow’s decided change in appearance, the nightlife pallor having yielded to the healthy glow provided by regular hours, sleep, and wholesome food. “Yeah,” sighed the jailbird, “I guess the pace in here is beginning to tell.” —New York Evening Graphic. He (wishing guest good-night in country cottage): By the way, that ceiling « loose. If it comes down during the night don't bother to clean it up, I'll get a man on it in the morning. The man who says he knows woman is the kind that women “no.” —Everybody’s Weekly. —Passing Show. comicbooks.com