Life, 1905-06-22 · page 9 of 26
Life — June 22, 1905 — page 9: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This satirical piece criticizes the American celebration of Independence Day (Fourth of July). The cartoon depicts a small figure struggling to control an oversized cannon labeled to fire 5,000 times for 5 cents—a reference to commercial Fourth of July fireworks and firecrackers that were popular and dangerous. The satire argues that allowing boys to detonate explosives celebrates liberty in a way that contradicts patriotic values. The author contends that uncontrolled explosions cause injuries and deaths ("cannon cracker casualties"), making the practice incongruous with genuine patriotism. The piece mocks the irony that Americans claim to honor freedom while permitting a dangerous tradition that harms their own children, calling it "a day of evil augury to our national selfhood."
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
=U RSES: The National Festival. A LEARNED professor at Lehigh University, having devised a cannon which makes a loud report without danger of bursting, emits a great flash of innocuous flame, and may be fired 5,000 times at an ex- pense of 5 cents, confidently ex- pects, if the telegraph has it right, that this contrivance will do away with the cannon cracker casualties of the Fourth of July. It is hard to think of an American miscon- ceiving so completely the spirit of Of course necessity is the precise antithesis of liberty, and an imple- ment wherewith a boy might not, by any possibility, kill or maim himself, but must necessarily escape thed, would import into the of libert uns celebration y's natal day an element most incongruous and No undestructive explosion, how- d, will ever depressive of proper enthusiz ever ¢ ngorous, no flash of harmless flame, however v express the feelings which swell the breast of patriotic youth, and press for utterance on that day of days As for the thing being fired 5,000 times for 5 cents, this cir- rather than Tradition lends no encouragement to parsimony here, nor is a grateful peo- ple likely to forget that an unexampled material prosperity is the particular heritage of the illustrious epoch which we com- cumstance renders it less more fit memorate, It will be a day of evil augury to our national selfhood when boys cease to blow their money in and themselves up on the Fourth of pet. Mrs. SHARPE: island. A Larger Circulation. RS, LUVNEUSE that scandal next door, and put it in The Trum- T wouldn't Leggitt, the dressmaker—it will reach more people. IRST SHIPWRECKE We must get rid of these natives as soon as 733 A Study in Heredity. EMNANT of peoples, long gone by— One grand-dame's hair—another's eye; Somebody's feet with hands to match— From head to toe made up of patch— A nose I like not—chin the same— With cast-off traits and threadbare name : Born toa fate I'd sometimes shirk— Working at work which oft won't work:— Over one thought I puzzle a lot— Did I get a bargain—or did I not ? Popular. s HAT Jones “She is getting a thousand dollars iu week on the stage. Whom did she kill? ever became of Dolly * Goodness! A BLACK AND WHITE PORTRAIT, Through Ticket. MARRIED woman should continue A matched, Her social pass reads: Not good, if de- tached. I've a good mind to write up We'll, mention it to Miss Easy. ) MARINER: This is a bully possible, so we can own it ourselves, SeconD SiPWRECKED Mariner: But how? “Easy, We've saved enough from the wreck to feed them all on health foods,” OLO ENGLISH PROVERB, FANCY FLEES (PLEAS) AFORE THE WIND, comicbooks.com