Life, 1929-08-02 · page 16 of 40
Life — August 2, 1929 — page 16: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains **"Miss Pep's Diary,"** a fictional column presented as an upper-class woman's account of summer activities in Cooperstown, N.Y. (dated July 9). **The top cartoon** by Baird Leonard shows a man in a bathing suit assuring a drowning child he'll "get ye ashore"—a humorous beach rescue scene. **The lower illustration** depicts an ornate shop interior where a woman purchases ice cream while a man (labeled "Blotto") makes a drunken comment: "Say, mister! This ain't no masquerade party—it's a fire!" The joke appears to reference either her elaborate dress or the shop's decorative lights, which he mistakes for festive party attire while intoxicated. The diary section satirizes upper-class leisure culture and social pretension through gossipy anecdotes about dinners, servants, and summer socializing.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
~"T ain't one o’ these han'some life guards, mum, but I'll get ye ashore.” Cooperstown, N. Y., July 9—Woods in betimes with my breakfast tray and also the bad tidings that the spots will Leonard not come out of my white silk gown, which does seem a tragedy in that I did wear it but five minutes before acquiring them. Then up and did on my sleeveless pongee with the blue polka dots, and off to the village to replenish my clinical supplies, and whilst I was un- chaperoned in the drug store I was moved by the opportunity to eat some vanilla ice-cream, but Lord! the portion was small enough to be a mere sample, and just as I was shamelessly bawling my order for a second to the exceedingly deaf man who served me, Nowell walked into the shop, a most unfor- tuitous arrival, since our hostess had this very morn- ing tabooed his suggestion of ice-cream for dinner on the grounds that Mistress Pep would eat it to her probable detriment. I must admit here secretly that I have consumed more ice-cream out of bounds than my friends and relatives are aware of, nor has it done me any apparent harm, neither, but Samuel says that I do regard all nourishment as so much manna which does not cause me to drop dead in the street. Home to find the assembled household engaged in much pleasant, aimless discourse, in es- pecial on the charm of a young woman with a great number of serious cavaliers, until it did seem to me that she had not only It but Them, as Mistress Ford did say at Commencement time. Dinner this night at Susan’s, of clear beet soup, chicken lobster, squab, lima beans, sweet corn, rice cakes, etc., and the most beautiful salad that ever I saw in my life, fashioned from vari-colored balls of watermelon and canteloupe. Sat next Mr. Greene from Cherry Valley, who did tell me of a bishop of his acquaintance who, being asked if the mint julep which he had consumed had hit the spot, had quoth, “Yes, but I have two spots.” And it did mind me of the bishop who, lecturing Buorto: Say, mis- his grandsons on temperance, had told them that ter! This ain't no when the brace of candles before them should ap- masquerade party pear as four, it was high time for their departure, —it’s a firel (Continued on Page 35) comicbooks.com