Life, 1901-11-28 · page 3 of 22
Life — November 28, 1901 — page 3: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Analysis of Life Magazine Page 423 **Top Illustration**: "A Celestial Rarebit: Why the Moon is Made of Green Cheese" depicts classical figures and cherubs around a large circular object (the moon), satirizing fantastical scientific claims about celestial bodies. **"Come Over, Doctor Koch"**: This poem mocks a German doctor (likely referring to Robert Koch, the famous bacteriologist) and American diseases. The satire ridicules European medical expertise while listing American ailments with dark humor—"consumption, cancer, lunacy" and various parasites. It's a jingoistic jab suggesting American doctors don't need foreign help despite health problems. The small circular emblem marked "MD" reinforces the medical theme. The satire reflects early 20th-century American-European tensions and skepticism toward foreign medical authority.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
1 _ \ AN ~~ Come Over, Doctor Koch. THERE'S a famous German doctor man who has a won ly drous way Of curing the incura- bles, or so the papers say. Consumption, cancer, lunacy are mi- crobe things, you know, Strange straddle-bugs that in your veins do gambol to and fro, But these microscopic sinners reap the sure reward of sin When the little German doctor shoots his antitoxine in, aa 2 A CELESTIAL RAREBIT. WHY THE MOON 18 MADE OP GREEN curzsE. We need you in America, O doctor, won- drous wise. You'll discover here diseases that will thrill you with surprise. Come to all the politicians and the states- men that you see Whose veins are fairly swarming with the presidential bee. This microbe is a hummer, strenuous and full of gimp, And he's crying out for treatment with a prophylactic lymph, There's the mentioned-in-the-papers bug, a. most peculiar itch That wanders freely in the veins of all the newly rich, There's the office-seeking maggot, clinging to the latest breath, And the poetry ‘illus, quite a cause of sudden death; While the mental » e mite, Go climbing through some people till they cannot sleep at night. social: problem centipede, the And so, wise German doctor, we invite you to our shores. Bring your hypodermic syringe and inocu- late the bores, For the straddle-bugs of boredom are a most persistent lot And they'll need ext serum that is hot. You'll find within the Yankee veins most wondrous kinds of shrimp, And they're erying out for treatment with ‘a prophylactic lymph. sive treatment with a comicbooks.com