Life, 1896-06-11 · page 13 of 20
Life — June 11, 1896 — page 13: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains three distinct satirical pieces: **"What Is a Liar?"** attacks vivisection (animal testing). The satire mocks scientists who claim animals feel no pain during cruel experiments while listing gruesome procedures (cutting arteries, varnishing skin, drowning, poisoning). The hypocrisy is the point: if animals suffer no pain, why are the experiments so brutal? **"A Model Husband"** (cartoon, lower left) appears to satirize marital dynamics, showing a woman controlling/dominating a passive man. **"The Fox and the Grapes"** modernizes Aesop's fable to criticize moral righteousness. Rather than condemning the fox for rationalization, it attacks people who "invent faults" for others to critique—implying moralizers are the real problem. A separate item mocks President McKinley, suggesting silence on currency policy (the "silver men" debate) would help his political standing. The page's overarching theme: exposing hypocrisy in authority figures and self-righteous moralizers.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
*LIFE: WHAT IS A LIAR. FABLES FOR THE TIMES. O the vivisector objects to being called a liar! Well, well! If he is not a liar, what is he? In what category does he expect to be placed when he tells us— not only tells us, but shouts it at us with both fists — that animals suffer no pain while being cut up alive? It is presumably an indication of an unscientific mind when we refuse to believe that any real, out-and-out enjoyment of life is possible during “*the inserting of tubes into arteries, as advised and practiced by Stephen Hales, of Teddington; the covering of the shaven skins of animals with varnish, of Drs. Kleinberg and Prolatus; the starvings of Dr. Chossatt; stopping wind-pipes with corks; keeping animals forcibly under water until almost dead, then, by methods as cruel, restoring them to consciousness; holding the heads of Guinea pigsin basins of quicksilver; cramming the mouths and larynxes of dogs with liquid plaster of Paris until it solidifies.” IZZER: I tell you what, old boy, it’s a case that makes my heart bleed. The fellow has died and left a wife and six little ones entirely unprovided for. Quizzer: Didn't he even have his life insured ? “Oh, no; no company would risk him—his profession was too hazardous.” “Why, what was he?” ‘*A life insurance agent.” ii is respectfully pointed out to Major McKinley that silence, being traditionally golden, is liable to prejudice his chances with the silver men. Mite ” THE FOX AND THE GRAPES, A FOX stood under an apple-tree and gazed up earnestly at the globes of yellow lusciousness. ‘*How sad. for the sake of an old-time piece of lit- | erature," he said, ‘that the fox is a carnivorous is {i animal and doesn’t care particularly about fruit!” =| — Immoral: We all have plenty of faults without the Truly Good taking the trouble to invent them for us. A MODEL HUSBAND, H.W. Phillips. comicbooks.com