Life, 1900-11-08 · page 9 of 20
Life — November 8, 1900 — page 9: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Analysis of Life Magazine Page 369 The main image shows an industrial scene labeled "IF JAMES WATT SHOULD RETURN TO EARTH," depicting a massive steam boiler/factory with workers. This is a satirical commentary on industrial progress: James Watt, the 18th-century Scottish engineer who improved the steam engine, is imagined observing modern industrial scale and mechanization. The accompanying text discusses alcohol—poisons, bread with alcohol content, and beer consumption—appearing to be a piece satirizing Prohibition-era debates about the regulation of intoxicating substances. Below are humorous quotes, including "The Eternal Feminine" dialogue and a Brooklyn anecdote about boiling water and drinking menagerie rather than cemetery water—likely absurdist humor mocking folk remedies or superstitious practices. The overall tone is satirical commentary on modern industrial society and social habits.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
IF JAMES WATT SHOULD RETURN TO EARTH, 369 choose. It certainly kills some folks who tako enough of it at one time, and we all know that, poison or not, it is a sub- stance that requires to be used, if used at all, with ceaseless discrimination. Inasmuch, though, as many poisons are very ~ useful and are consumed in large quantities, it does not appear that, even if tho W. C. T. U. ladies aro right, they have got ahead very much. There is some alcohol in bread, yet we are not going to discard bread in conse- quence unless it disagrees with us. There is some in beer also, but the world will go on drinking more or less beer. The impor- tant thing about alcohol is to learn how to use it, or how to let it alone. Practically it doesn’t sig- nify whether it isa poison ora food, for itsresultsare the same whatever name it goes by, and about its results there is very little obscurity, and, among sensible people, not much difference of opinion. HE woman was made last 80 she wouldn’t have to wait for some one to talk to. The Eternal Feminine: 24 Bes is you women who make all the trouble in life.” “Yes, and who make ‘life worth the trouble.” In Brooklyn. “pe you boil your water before drink- ing it?” * Boilit ! Well, I guess not. I'd rather drink a menagerie than a ceme- tery any day.”