Life, 1901-12-19 · page 1 of 20
Life — December 19, 1901 — page 1: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Life Magazine, December 19, 1901 This page from Life magazine's satirical section features an ornate decorative header spelling "LIFE" with classical and allegorical imagery. Below is a photograph showing two people in formal Edwardian dress - a man in a suit and top hat and a woman in a long dark coat and hat, standing near what appears to be early automobile equipment. The caption reads: "HE: BUT, MY DEAR GIRL, WHY COMPLAIN? DON'T YOU KNOW THIS SORT OF THING IS ALL THE RAGE? DO YOU NEVER READ THE PAPERS?" The satire likely mocks the then-novel automobile as a fashionable but unreliable contraption - the woman appears frustrated while the man defends the vehicle's popularity despite its obvious problems. This reflects early-1900s skepticism about motor vehicles as expensive, temperamental status symbols rather than practical transportation.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
1001, VOLL ME XXXVIII. NEW YORK, DEG. 19, 1901. . NUMBER 999, Entered at the New York Post Office as Second-Ciass Mail Matter. Copyright, 1900, by Lurz PUBLISHING ComPaNY. He: BCT, MY DEAR GIRL, WHY COMPLAIN? DON’T YOU KNOW THIS SORT OF THING 18 ALL THE RAGE? DO YOU NEVER READ THE PAPERS?