Life, 1905-04-20 · page 20 of 28
Life — April 20, 1905 — page 20: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page from *Life* magazine contains multiple elements: a **moral lesson poem** about avoiding grammatical errors in sentences; a **humorous anecdote** about a schoolchild who doesn't understand why we decorate soldiers' graves on Decoration Day (Memorial Day), with the punchline that the child thinks dead soldiers are irrelevant since "they are dead and we ain't"; and a **cartoon titled "Farmer Buzzing"** depicting rural characters discussing old-fashioned horse-drawn transport versus new automobiles—implying resistance to modern technology. The page also includes **period advertisements** for Wilson Whiskey, Evans' Ale, Esterbrook's Steel Pens, and New York Central Railroad trains. The humor targets **American social attitudes**: children's logical but tactless questions, rural conservatism regarding innovation, and genteel instruction in proper English usage. All reflect early 20th-century concerns about education, progress, and propriety.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
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