Life, 1903-12-31 · page 3 of 21
Life — December 31, 1903 — page 3: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page combines New Year's sentiment with early 20th-century satire. The main cartoon "Speed the Parting Guest" depicts Death (the robed skeleton figure with scythe) chasing away 1903, while an airship labeled "1904" arrives—suggesting optimism about the new year displacing the old. The poem "Good-Bye, Old Year" sentimentalizes the departing year with nostalgic references to past pleasures and pains now ended. Below, the "Food" section appears to be satirical commentary on dietary trends and their connection to social anxieties—mentioning neurotic women, politics, and manufacturing concerns about waste products becoming food. The dialogue snippet mocks magazine writers and ministers, suggesting contemporary intellectual pretensions. The overall message: bidding farewell to 1903 while poking fun at modern social concerns.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Good-Bye, Old Year. WW Eanshed sith you, we chatfed with you, The glass of fun we quaffed with you, While sitting side by side. You made life bright, Put out of sight The griefs we had to hide. We danced with you, we pranced with you, While others less entranced with you Just slowly plodded on. You lent a hand At all we planned. We miss you, now you're gone. We dined with you, we pined with you, And many, too, oft wined with you, Old Year, who went so fast. You were a friend Clear to the end. Your joys and woes are past. SPEED THE PARTING OUEST. We sighed with you, we cried with you, And some, they almost died with you. "Tis hard to say good-bye! Your heart was warm Through sun and storm. We grieve that you should die. Mrs, Findley Braden, Food. yroop is fast becoming a necessity in our complex life. How many stop to think that food is no unimportant part of the meals which medicine is taken after? Food has done much to give us neurosis, and what would church work be without neurotic women, or politics without neurotic men? But for food, it would probably be so difficult to diet that many would ETH Se seek some other way of beguiling their time, to the detriment of the general health. Moreover, the state of the market is sometimes such that it is more profit- able to make up the waste products of manufacturing into food than into buttons or car-wheels. Qualified. CRIBBLEHARD: ‘I believe I’ve written myself out ; I don’t seem to have an idea left. PENHANDLER: Well, why don’t you write stories for the magazines, then? PAREE: Do you know our minister atall? Lane: Oh, I have a nodding ac- quaintance with him. K comicbooks.com