Life, 1896-03-12 · page 3 of 20
Life — March 12, 1896 — page 3: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Life Magazine Page Analysis **Main Image:** A street scene showing a large crowd, apparently depicting a public gathering or protest. **Caption Exchange:** Two figures discuss hiring, with one stating "You are well fitted for the position, but I should prefer a married man" and the response "Perhaps we can arrange that. I see you have daughters." This satirizes **employment discrimination based on marital status**, a common practice in early 20th-century hiring. The joke's implication—that an unmarried man might pursue the employer's daughters—suggests anxieties about single men's behavior and moral character that influenced hiring decisions. **Lower Section:** "Lines on an X-Ray Portrait of a Lady" is a humorous poem by Lawrence K. Russel describing a woman's skeletal anatomy in romantic, flattering language despite the x-ray's clinical appearance. The accompanying illustration shows bicycle riders, captioned "Signs of Spring." The poem plays on the contrast between x-ray's unflattering reality and poetic idealization of female beauty.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
NUMBER 689 “You ARE Wi bi PS WE CAN ARRA: THAT. I SEE YOU HAVE DAUGHTERS. LINES ON AN X RAY PORTRAIT OF A LADY. SHE is so tall, so slender; and her bones-- Those frail phosphates, those carbonates of lime.— Are well produced by cathode rays sublime, By oscillations, ampéres, and by ohms. Her dorsal vertebra are not concealed By epidermis, but are well revealed. Around her ribs, those beauteous twenty-four, Her flesh a halo makes, misty line, Her noseless, eyeless face looks into mine, And I but whisper, ‘‘ Sweetheart, Je t’ adore.” Her white and gleaming teeth at me do laugh. Ah! lovely, cruel, sweet cathodograph ! pe ee - P< Lawrence K. Russel. Stoxs op SeRIBG: comicbooks.com