Life, 1898-03-31 · page 5 of 20
Life — March 31, 1898 — page 5: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Analysis of Life Magazine Page 245 **Main Image:** A sketch shows two figures at a desk in what appears to be a medical consultation. The caption indicates a discussion about hereditary disease, with the patient requesting the doctor make "your father take sulphur baths at once" — suggesting the patient is deflecting blame for illness onto the doctor's family rather than accepting responsibility. **Poems:** Two verses titled "Thanks Be for Lent!" celebrate the religious observance of Lent, emphasizing abstinence from food and pleasures as beneficial for health and bodily discipline. References to digestive relief ("no dinners urge the stomach to rebel") suggest satirical commentary on Victorian overconsumption. **Context:** This appears to mock both hypochondria and the era's pseudo-scientific medical advice while celebrating Lenten self-restraint as genuinely healthful.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
YOUR DIARASK IS HEREDITARY,” Patient: WHat west 1 DO. DOCTOR “ATTACK THE TROUBLE AT ITS SOURCE: MAKE YOUR FATHER TAKE SULPHUR BATHS AT ONCE.” Thanks Be for Lent! Thanks fervent come from heart and palate cloyed With social sweets. With gratitude we greet THANKS be for Lent! Release from pleasures that we can't avoid— With unaccelerated flow, once more For Rout we gladly substitute Retreat, Our blood through its accustomed channels moves The current of our means we now reverse, And we are blessed with normal pulse. The door And stop the leak in our depleted purse— On Folly’s shut. Life in well-ordered grooves Thanks be to Lent! Wood Lerette Wilson. Glides slowly on, The old heart-burnings cease In semi-somnolence of social peace, Thanks be for Lent! No dinners urge the stomach to rebel And mutiny against the palate’s sway; No nightmares of dyspepsia’s tortures tell; No soothing bromo must we bave next day. The inner and the outer man agree Oa what is good, and all is harmony. Thauks be for Lent! comicbooks.com