Life, 1903-08-06 · page 13 of 32
Life — August 6, 1903 — page 13: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains multiple satirical pieces targeting American society circa early 1900s. **Top cartoon:** Shows Wall Street financiers unable to escape wireless telegraphy's reach—mocking how new technology intrudes on even the wealthy's leisure. **"Sinews" section:** Mocks Andrew D. White's proposal to teach "honest politics" at universities for $12 million. The satire's point: honest politics is either impossible or so complex that universities cannot teach it—and if they could teach something so trivial, correspondence schools could do it cheaper. The quote "Git a plenty while yer gittin'" suggests politicians' actual ethos contradicts academic idealism. **Chicago women joke:** A play on "undo"—society women's main activity is undoing/unraveling social conventions or their husbands' work. **Von Blumer exchange:** Jokes that cigars suit Christian Scientists (who reject material comfort/medicine), so she's saving awful cigars as a "gift" for her newly converted friend—subtle mockery of Christian Science as an extreme belief system.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
‘LIFE: re PLEASURE VERSUS WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY, WALL STRERT RROWN CAN'T ESCAPE TH Sinews. D® ANDREW D. WHITE'S pro- posal that twelve millions be raised to enable universities to teach honest politics seems like a species of trifling. Honest politics, as every- body knows who has dipped into it, is a very recondite subject. A mere smattering will do more harm than good. From the very idea of Bachelors of Honest Politics who know no more about honest politics than Bachelors of Arts know about arts, the right-thinking involuntarily recoil. At a conservative estimate, it will take at least a hundred millions to enable the universities to teach honest politics. The correspondence schools might do it for twelve, but not the universities. Educators going out after the coin should always keep in mind those fine, brave sentiments of Ol Mis Means: “Git a plenty while yer gittin.” QTRANGER: Do your Chicago society women have * much to do? No. Undo, Native: THIS 18 THE ACTOR WHO SANG “IN THE GOOD OLD SUMMER TIME"? ALL LAST WINTER. M RS. VON BLUMER: What are yon going to do h those awful cigars? Vow Biumer: I’m saving them for a friend of mine who has just become a Christian Scientist. comicbooks.com