Life, 1896-02-20 · page 9 of 20
Life — February 20, 1896 — page 9: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Page 137 Analysis: Life Magazine **"A February Hold Up"** (top illustration): A snowy winter scene depicting what appears to be a stagecoach robbery, with armed figures on horseback confronting travelers on a frozen landscape. **"Another Discovery"**: Text discusses typhoid fever prevention, credited to a Washington physician. The playing cards ("The Flush of Victory") and accompanying text suggest irony about medical advances coexisting with persistent disease. **"A Western Application"** (bottom cartoon by Carl Wingate): Shows two men discussing "the smart set" in exclusive Western towns. The humor derives from applying Eastern social pretensions to rough frontier life—one man jokingly proposes wife-swapping, mocking the artificiality of claiming sophistication in an unsophisticated setting. The page mixes serious public health commentary with satirical cartoons about American social hierarchies.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
A FEBRUARY HOLD UP. ANOTHER DISCOVERY! E understand that the world is indebted to a Wash- ington physician for the information that “the knowlege of how to prevent typhoid fever is the result of isec~ tion.” This is in perfect har- mony with many other statements emanating from vivi sectors. But typhoid fever, we notice, is as rampant as ever. Perhaps the increase of typhoid in certain localities is a punishment from the Creator for not torturing more animals to death. A WESTERN APPLICATION. LADY, moving in the supposedly exclusive circle of a Western town, lying under the shadows of the Rockies, was much distressed at hearing a small clique in her town refer to themselves as the ‘‘smart set.” She appealed to an ex-United States Senator, and asked him what he understood was meant by the term ‘‘the smart set.” He replied: ‘I think I can give you an example. In the eastern part of Colorado and in the western part of Nebraska there is a large tract of land known as the ‘ Rain Belt.’ It never rains there.” se CARLWINGATE EWARE of the man who loves everybody, because he has to spread his affection on mighty thin in order to make it go ‘round. SO EVERLASTIN’LY CANTANKEROUS.” “THIS A WOMEN’S EXCHANGE? WELL, I'D LIKE TO SWAP MY WIFE FOR ONE THAT AIN'T LOST ALL HER TEETH AND AIN'T comicbooks.com