Life, 1905-04-06 · page 37 of 62
Life — April 6, 1905 — page 37: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
The main cartoon titled "Dawn" satirizes President Theodore Roosevelt's imperialist expansion policies. Roosevelt (speaking from his mansion) justifies aggressive military expansion—stationing warships in Caribbean waters ("palmy bays"), seizing territory like the Panama Canal ("strip of Isthmus"), and extending borders southward to "Del Fuego"—as merely "exercising" his expansionist hobby rather than naked conquest. The satire's bite lies in the contradiction: Roosevelt simultaneously promotes "race-suicide" prevention (encouraging American births) while grabbing foreign lands as "playgrounds" for these children. The poem mocks his rhetoric of benevolence masking imperial ambition, and the symbolic illustration shows this expansion sprouting like flowers from the earth. The page also includes two brief joke items: "A Leak" (about rising gas bills) and "'Good' Society" (mocking wealthy pretense). The bottom cartoon shows someone buying "elephant's tooth powder by the barrel"—apparently satirizing either exotic consumption or dubious patent medicines.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
GRAGHLIFERREES » An Outlet for Home Industry. ActEse in his mansion T, Roosevelt says, says he, “I'm partial to Expansion Because it pleases me. “TM let my warships linger Among the palmy bays To scare the San Dominger To straight and narrow ways, + As merrily as Christmas My men-at-arms I'll switch To grab a strip of Isthmus To fringe my little ditch, And to assert my ego Our battleships I'll send, Till down to Del Fuego Our borders shall extend, “Call not this passion nobby Mere greed of conquest, brother. I simply ride one hobby To exercise another. “ For while the tracts denouncing Race-suicide I'm sowing, With children fat and bouncing The Nation's overflowing. “ And thus for lands a-plenty I'm bound to make my bids As playgrounds fort Race-Suicidal-Kids, Wallace Irwin. A Leak. ODD: It must about that legac Mrs. Nopp: Why? © Our gas Dill is twice as large as it t month,” eaked out left us, was “Good”? Society. ¥e HO were you at the opera with last night oe one checkered career, ts, and asi “MAMMA, DO THEY BUY ELEPIAS DAWN, POWDER BY THE BARREL 2??? comicbooks.com