Life, 1904-07-14 · page 28 of 44
Life — July 14, 1904 — page 28: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page features satire about urban poverty and labor exploitation circa early 1900s. **"Our Fresh-Air Fund"** documents a charitable program sending poor city children to a farm for health and recreation—letters from grateful children describe milk, bathing, and food. The underlying satire: these children's desperate gratitude for basic nutrition exposes urban poverty's severity. **"A Sad Case"** (left cartoon) depicts two working-class men discussing hardship. One notes a woman has lived "in the r trunks [trunks/poverty] fer two years"—mocking upper-class obliviousness to working-class suffering. **"The Solution"** sarcastically reports a University of Chicago claim about artificially creating intelligent servants without human feelings. The joke: universities promote absurd pseudo-scientific solutions to the "servant problem" (labor shortage), when actual servants still demand wages, time off, and dignity—revealing the fantasy of servitude without human cost. The page overall critiques early-1900s America's class divisions, pseudo-scientific justifications for exploitation, and wealthy society's disconnection from working-class reality.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
62 Our Fresh-Air Fund. Previously acknowledged....+++++ C.F., Columbus, € Hee Revwveviees $4,074.34 2.00 5-00 $408.34 Postals from Life’s Farm. ar Mamma would like you to come to see me at sunday and allsew whie papa Tam geting strong and I am fat and I give a kiss to all and how isthe baby Mamma are you better if you are better I will be glad Brancuvitte, Conn. Dear Family, Uhave reached safely and Iam very happy. I drink as fauch milk as I want. haven't any money. We have scups. down the village every day to bay candy. Live's Farst, Braxcuvitts, Cons. Dear Mamma :—1 am now in the country in safety. 1 ask you to please send me some money because I we go bathing every day and we go Lillian and [like the place very much we are treated very nicely. We sleep right to the head lady and we have very nice clean bed play together nicely. Mamma Papa Elsie and all my friends. Please write tell Els Your Daughter. Lirr's Fars, Brancvitte, Conn. A SAD CASE. EN PRETTY BAD OFF AT TIMES, EM, sure we wave!" IT AIN'T A CIRCUMSTANCE TER HOW SOME OF "EM, NAS TER Live! YES ARD ONG ER THEM REAL SERSIETY ANT HER MUSDAN' HAD BREN LIVEN’ IN THE R TRUNKS VER TWO Yeans!"” Nettie and Li Hoping you are well I send my best regards to all, Dear Mama:—I like the place very much, We all have to drink one quart of milk a day don't send any money untill I write for it because I will only lose it, I was in bathing this afternoon and I can swim a littl bit, Martha dident goin very much because she was afraid of her teeth, My adress is Live's Farm, Branchville, Conn. Write soon, I am very glad that I cane to this country be- caus we all can get all the food we want and are you going to send some money Tucsday Live's Fas, Brancuvitte, Conn. Dear pa, We have a nice time and we go in Bathing evry day, We eat May ¢ plat of oatmeal 8 slice of bread 4 Boles of mick Eddie g pleat of soup 6 boles of cack and chicken 4 pleats, gurtic the sane, Please send a letter. from May Good by. Lire, Fars, BRancuvitte, Benefit. . P*BEE: How is your auto get- ting on? Lane: Not atall. But I have made so many repairs on it that my system is full of oil, and I walk easier. Solution. HICAGO.—The Press Agent of the University gives out authoritative statements as to the recent discoveries in the biological laboratory. It appears that there has been, as usual, exaggeration. ‘The report that there has been arti- ficially produced an al with an intelligence, but devoid of human feelings, is only partly true. Careful tests show that it is not abso- lutely impossible toinsult the new being. Nor does it look perfectly swell in livery. AT LIFE'S FARM, ‘THE BAND. It will go into the suburbs, but not altogether without aversion. It will not work for nothing, as yet. It is not thoroughly indifferent as to afternoons off. The public are warned against ex- pecting too much. The biologists of the University believe they are on the way toa solution of the servant prob- lem, but there are still very grave difficulties to be surmounted. A Hard School. HOWMAN: Want a job as acrobat, do you? Arrticant: Yes, sir, “Ever travel with a show ?"’ “ Never.”” College graduate, maybe?” “No.” “Taught in Japan, perhaps?” “*No, sir!"" “Well, what experience have you had?” “T have traveled daily for sixteen years on the open cars of the Metro- politan Street Railroad, up and down Manhattan Island." “What pay do you ask?” Three hundred a wee! Very well. Begin to-morrow. A Keen Sense. HE PARSON: Young man, have you ever seriously considered your duty to others ? Futter: Indeed I have! I visited a summer resort recently, cnd I hadn't been there twenty-four hours before I had kissed every girl in the hotel,