Life, 1895-04-25 · page 18 of 18
Life — April 25, 1895 — page 18: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains three satirical cartoons mocking social issues of the era: **"The Babies' Strike"** (top left): Infants protest ineffective parenting, with a baby addressing a meeting complaining mothers spank without achieving discipline—satirizing contemporary debates about child-rearing methods and parental authority. **Salvation Army Scene** (top right): A young man tells a Salvation Army worker he's a *reporter*, not a spiritual convert—mocking both the Salvation Army's aggressive evangelism and press sensationalism around religious organizations. **Bottom cartoon** (from *La Caricature*): A sergeant boasts that typhoid fever nearly killed him or left him an idiot, yet he survived—dark satire on military stoicism and the absurdity of taking pride in surviving near-fatal illness, possibly commenting on wartime casualties and masculine bravado. All three use exaggerated caricature and humor to critique social institutions: family discipline, religious zealotry, and military culture.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
> LIFE: MORE PAP | ae NO MORE SPANKING] i SAwarior 4 Wao to Oo { BLOOD i AWE WONT ; 1 BE WASHED | From Pall Mall Budget. From The Sketch. THE BABIES’ STRIKE. Salvation Lass (to young man who has been paying great attention to the Master Toodles (addresses the meeting): BOO—HOO! I DON'T SEE THE speakers): ARE YOU SAVED? GOOD 0' MOTHERS, TH—TH—THEY KEEP ON SP—SP—SPANKING AWAY, AND Young Man: No, V'M A REPORTER. DON'T DO ANY GOOD, ANYWAY. Salvation Lass: OM, | REG YOUR PARDON! From La Caricature. “WELL, NOW, WHEN I HAD THE TYPHOID FEVER IT WAS SO BAD THE DOCTOR SAID, ‘HE WILL DIF OF IT OR REMAIN AN IDIOT.’ AND LOOK AT ME! 1 pips'T pie, AND I AM A SARGEANT." comicbooks.com