Life, 1905-01-12 · page 3 of 20
Life — January 12, 1905 — page 3: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
**The Illustration:** "The Spider and the Fly" depicts a woman in elaborate dress observing a spider web with trapped insects, serving as visual commentary on the accompanying text. **"The Cold Bath" Article:** This is a satirical essay about the health practice of taking cold baths. The author discusses the supposed benefits while acknowledging the discomfort—describing the experience as requiring "sublime courage" and comparing it to facing mortality. The piece mocks the Victorian obsession with cold-water bathing as a health cure, using darkly humorous language about "dying" and "porcelain bath tubs." The cartoon likely reinforces the essay's theme: the image of trapped prey parallels humans caught in fashionable but torturous health practices of the era.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
The Cold Bath. I" is stated upon reliable authority that the cold bath is good for m: that it tones up the system, invige the skin, and imparts a healthy action to the circulation. Weare not sure but what it does other things than this. Atany rate, it would seem as if the cold bath ought to do more for its victims. If there be a law of compensation concealed somewhere about Providence, the man who can fearlessly plunge into cold water all inter, attired only in an atmosphere of sublime courage and a cringing smile, ought at least to be otherwise free from THE SPIDER AND THE FLY, care. He oughtto havea happy home, a large retinue of servants to keep him sgood-natured and about amilliona year. We ourselves have hitherto indulged in the habit of cold baths to an extent. We have awakened in the morning with a dull and growing sense of impending doom, and before we have had time to become fully conscious of our bodies, prospective chills have crept up and down our mind Finally, with a supreme effort, we nave risen from our warm bed, and in the frappéd gloom of carly morning slipped noiselessly to the scene of suffering. 39 This winter, however, we have deter- mined to be martyrs to the ca no longer. Henceforth we shall lie in our comfortable bed, indolently scornful of that ruggedness that we willingly relinquish. We do not know what is going to happen to our circulation. If we grow more nervous, then so be it. If our appetites fail us, we will bear up. But give us for once a shudderless winter. Let us, if need be, stand upon the brink of the grave, and not any more with our spines quivering in agony upon the brink of a deadly porcelain bath tub. comicbooks.com