Life, 1902-11-20 · page 8 of 22
Life — November 20, 1902 — page 8: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This cartoon satirizes the 1902-1903 coal shortage crisis affecting America. The dialogue between Mr. and Mrs. Turkey suggests coal will be scarce for heating during winter ("hardly be any coal for thanksgiving day"). The cartoon anthropomorphizes the turkey as facing the same fuel crisis as American households. The joke plays on the turkey's impending doom at Thanksgiving combined with the literal threat of freezing without coal—a double crisis. This references the anthracite coal strike and subsequent shortage that left many Americans unable to heat their homes during winter months, making fuel scarcity a genuine public concern of the era. The satire mocks both the energy crisis and the looming holiday threat.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
-LIFE- A Vital Question. ‘W HICH is the worst daily newspapez in the United States, and why? Lire would like to have this question definitely set- tled. With that in view we offer A Prize or Firry DoLLars IN GoLD for the cleverest contribution showing why any particular Y daily newspaper is the worst in Y the United States. Conpitions Competitors must limit thelr arguments to three hundred words each, Write on one side of the paper only. The contest will close March 1, 1903, and the award will be made as soon thereafter as the respective merits of the arguments can be determined. The winning argument will be printed, together with such others as may seem to Lire worthy of that distingutshed honor. Names and addresses of the writers should accompany all manuscripts. In no case will these be printed without permission of the ender. Those who desire thelr manuscripts retarned should enciose @ stamped and ad- dressed return envelope. Each manuscript may bear a pseudonym, which will be printed with the argument, Editors of Live are to be the sole Judges of the merits of the argu- Fare. LL, fares the land, and that in various ways, Where wealth accumulates, and health decays. Instead of good, substantial bread and meat, Some malted, predigested mush we eat— We break our fast with mush, off mush we lunch, At dinner mush, and yet more mush we munch, ‘TT takes to-morrow to show ourselves what fools we were but yesterday, “YY HERE is that mathematical phenomenon that was here last year? Wonderful, the way he could juggle with figures.” “Oh, he’s left the stage and gone with a gas company.” Pedagogy. ae UT,"’ objected the visitor, ‘quite a number of your * pupils have broken down and become imbeciles.”’ “True,” replied the eminent educator, ‘but we confi- dently expect better things in the future. The bacillus of overstudy having now been identified and a serum for its destruction devised, we look for no further trouble of the kind you mention.” Plant Emblems of a Few American Cities. JROSTON: Bean plant. New York: Hybrid of the potato and the wandering Jew vine. PutLapet- puta: Poppy. Cuicaa Prairie rose. MILWAUKEE’ Hop plant. New Ortea Moonflower. Mr. Turkey : oiviNa pay. Mrs. Turkey: a VERY LITTLE WILL Do Us. THE SANIN GG Ast Cannibal :“I say, old chap, yo 1st Cannibal: “we ll, HOURRAM! THERE WILL HARDLY BE ANY COAL POR THANKS ACE u eat her.” 2ndCannibal:‘OIsey.1 hardly think she'd £ s+newhat then?” thal 2™4C annibal: “Aw, let? Join her blooming church’) comicbooks.com