Life, 1900-02-22 · page 3 of 20
Life — February 22, 1900 — page 3: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Analysis of "Life" Magazine Page 143 This page satirizes President Theodore Roosevelt's personal habits, specifically his consumption of bottled water. The heading "From Photograph Taken on His Twenty-First Birthday" is tongue-in-cheek, mocking Roosevelt's famously vigorous persona. The text section "Typographical" references Rev. Wilbur F. Crafts, a temperance advocate who boasted about serving only mineral water at a presidential reception. The satire ridicules both Crafts's self-righteousness about this detail and Roosevelt's own reputation for promoting "strenuous" living. The illustration below depicts what appears to be working-class figures discussing the incident, with the caption sarcastically suggesting they'll "overlook" the fact that such modest beverages are "almighty small, almighty tough, and almighty inadequate." The humor derives from contrasting Roosevelt's rugged public image with the prissy detail of his water choice.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
uetured OND! se dene abition icher 6 GORA | finish ~ > the ling all fo PROM PHOTOGRAPH TAKEN ON 18 TWENTY-FIRST BIRTHDAY, Typographical. ES, Nature's wise, we can’t deny, In all bor hidden ways, But in her “types of men,” ch, why Are there 80 many “J's”? Nizon Waterman, VEN persons whoare not expecially con. cerned with the personal habits of the President may be Interested tn the calling down 1 a an fea ues The Deacon; om, LoD, of the Rev, Wilbur F, Crafts, a professtonal tem- pentnce hulker, who asserted tn a speech In Keston that champagne was served to the President at the Capitol durlug the closing hours of the Fifty gress, “1 saw the bottles carried ta!” said Crafts, There were bottles carried Inj bottles of mineral water, but no champa; So says Mr. Gaston, who had charge of the I nt’s room at the time, Think of a professional temperance reformer, so ignorant of the detalls of his business as not to know mineral water from champagne hy the Y MME iif ALMIGHTY INADAQUITE TER GU HOUND, Appearance of the botties! Oh Crafts! Go tot Everybody knows that {nso faras drink, 14 con- cerned the Prestdent {9a temperate man. What {mpudence tn yon to pry Into his beverages at all! What trrepresstble tgnorance you have shorn tn doing in such a misteading fashion what you never should have tried to do at all. ‘The half-baked, ill-informed tmpertinence of fellows of your stripe 1s one of the marvela of contemporary time. Efface yourself, Crafts. You need not even apologize for bearing false wit- ness, Go away, and go on tiptoe, and quietly. DIS VERE CHICKEN BE STOLEN, WR HOPE YOU WILL OBERLOOK DE PACT, YO" IT'S ALMIGHTY SMALL, ALMIGHTY TOUGH, AN’ comicbooks.com