Life — August 21, 1902 — page 1: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This page features a golf illustration captioned "During the Puffball Season" with the subtitle "Caddie (to near-sighted enthusiast): Say, Mister, That's a Mushroom." The cartoon depicts a golfer about to strike what he believes is a golf ball, but which is actually a puffball mushroom—a fungus that resembles a small white sphere. The humor relies on the golfer's poor eyesight and the caddie's dry observation of his mistake. This appears to be gentle satire mocking golfers, a sport gaining popularity among the American leisure class in the early 1900s. The joke suggests absent-minded enthusiasm among wealthy amateur golfers, poking fun at both the sport and its practitioners' inattentiveness during the mushroom-growing season.