Life, 1897-11-25 · page 15 of 20
Life — November 25, 1897 — page 15: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
**Top Illustration:** "Alone at the Railroad Station—Thanksgiving Day" depicts a crowded scene of travelers (appearing to be wealthy, well-dressed Americans) at a train station, contrasting with a solitary figure of a Native American woman with a child on the left, visually isolated from the group. **Main Article & Cartoon:** The text proposes introducing American football to Indian schools and reservations as a solution to perceived "Indian problems." The accompanying cartoon shows a Native American man in exaggerated caricature performing an aggressive football move, with the caption suggesting football would satisfy Native Americans' supposed natural warlike instincts rather than "idleness and Agency rum." **Bottom Cartoon:** Shows a landlord refusing rooms to someone, with dialogue suggesting antisemitic discrimination ("You dinks I'm a Jew"). **Context:** The page reflects early 20th-century attitudes viewing Native Americans as uncivilizable obstacles to progress, while simultaneously mocking Jewish immigrants facing housing discrimination—combining racist stereotypes in a purportedly "humorous" satirical magazine.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
ALONE AT THE RAILROAD STATION.—THANKSGIVING DAY. A Happy Thought. tions. It exactly meets the requirements of the situation. Scalping is not yet a feature of the game, but a slight HE experiment of en- revision of the rules would permit of it. rolling Indians in the yy regular army and thus pro- viding a legitimate outlet for their warlike spirit has proved a lamentable failure. They are not amenable to discipline, and civilized warfare is altogether too tame for them. What the Indian wants is some place where his individual thirst for gore can get inits fine work without restriction and without limit. With the failure of the army experi- ment there scemed no place ~ for him in modern civiliza- tion, and the only thing it seemed feasible to do was to let idleness and Agency rum carry out the work of the utter extinction of America’s native races. A solution to the Indian question is the introduction to the inter- Ties ; 7 p 1 KNOW WHY YOU HAVE No ROOMS, collegiate football game of “why 2” Indian schools and reserva- “YOU DINKS I'MA JEW."