Life, 1898-01-13 · page 7 of 20
Life — January 13, 1898 — page 7: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Life's Polar Expedition This illustration depicts Commander Hornblower's Arctic expedition, showing a dog sled traveling through harsh polar conditions with swirling snow. The caption reads: "Had it not been for our horseless carriage." The accompanying text describes Hornblower's lecture tour about polar exploration. The satire appears to target the contemporary fascination with both polar expeditions (then popular adventures) and the newly emerging automobile ("horseless carriage"). The joke seems to be that modern technology—the automobile—was somehow critical to surviving an Arctic journey traditionally dependent on dog teams and horses. The piece mocks either Hornblower's exaggerated claims about his expedition or society's tendency to credit new inventions for success in traditionally non-mechanical endeavors.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
27 of his lecture tour. “After we left the Pole,” said the Com- mander, ‘we had con- siderable trouble in finding the Same Old Game, and had it not been for our horseless carriage we might be roaming around there yet. We were enabled, however, to cover a great deal of snow ina short time, and after sev- eral hours of search we sighted our Arctic home. Arriving on board, we headed her south, and arrived without accident or incident. In passing Boston, however, the cold became so intense that we suffered greatly, and my typewriter, Miss Bunker, was obliged to stop work on the last chapters of my book ” The first event of im- portance was the recep- tion given to Commander Hornblower by Mrs. Knightly-Gadding, which was reported for days in advance in the society col- umns of all the newspa- pers, and was not only an unqualified success, but a fit prelude to the Com. mander’s lecture tour. Ladies and young girls vied with cach other to approach the presence of the Conqueror of the North, several fainting dead away and others being quite severely in- jured. To be martyrs in such a cause, however, is an honor, and they did not mind it, The reception was fol- lowed by a dinner at the Lotus Club, which Major Pond considers is neces- sary to properiy exploit every great man. Commander Hornblower is now on his lecture tour. “T never enjoyed myself more,” he writes. ‘Iam making twenty-two dol- Lire’s PoLar Exrepition.—‘* Had it not been for our horseless carriage.” comicbooks.com