Life, 1903-04-02 · page 23 of 36
Life — April 2, 1903 — page 23: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains two separate satirical pieces: **Main Illustration:** A Sherlock Holmes-style deduction scene. A fox demonstrates elaborate logical reasoning to deduce a man's characteristics (wealth, gout, multiple marriages, servant assistance) from footprints alone. The satire mocks overly confident deductive reasoning—the fox reaches absurdly specific conclusions from minimal evidence. The moral ("An Ounce of Deduction is worth a Pound of Fact") ironically suggests logical deduction beats actual facts, though the reasoning shown is clearly flawed. **Bottom Captions:** Two separate jokes about marriage. The first jokes that six club memberships is excessive for a married man. The second depicts chickens discussing gender—one female chick noting she's "lucky" and another born with "an easier way on her head," making a crude anatomical joke about gender differences. The page satirizes pretentious logic, marital constraints, and contains period-typical crude humor. The artist is credited as "Carolyn Walls" for the main piece.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
rad by this Time to answer that Question your- self. But since you Inquire, I will Show you how Easily a Mind like Mine can Reach Conclusions. Ob- serve these Footprints. They are Made by a Man who is lamed by Gout; who is rich, and who is married to his Third Wife, a Beautiful woman of Slight Force of Character.”’ “How can you Possibly know all that?” exclaimed his Friend. “It is so Easy,’ said the Fox, wearily, as he Lighted his Pipe. ‘ You can see the Man is Lame, because the Footprints are Un- even, Also, _ beside them are the footprints of a servant who assist- ed the man to Walk. This proves him a Rich man, and his wealth proves his Gout. He must be married to a Third Wife, for a First would have had all the servants Herself, and a Second would have been Tagging after the Man. His wife must be Beautiful or he would not have m ried her. She has slight Force of Charac- ter, or she Too would have monopolized all the Servants’ Services, Now the Footsteps do not go near the Grapes, although the Fruit is within Easy Reach of a man’s arm. This, therefore, proves them sour, because I deduce that the Man with the Gout would take no Acid into his System.” Moral: An Oance of Deduc- tion is worth a Pound of Fact. Carolyn Walls, “DON'T YoU THINK THAT SIX CLUBS 18 4 GOOD MANY Po A MARRIED MAN LIKE roun- SELF TO BELONG TUT? First Chick ; sux, Too, 18 LUCKY. “RUT, MY DARLING, YOU MUST REMEMMEn THAT NOT EVERY MARRIED MAN WAS A Second Chick : WOMAN LIKE you ron a wire.” “WHY, ISN'T SUE BEING BORN WITH AN FASTER WAT ON MER DY comicbooks.com