Life, 1905-07-27 · page 17 of 24
Life — July 27, 1905 — page 17: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains three separate satirical pieces reflecting early 20th-century social concerns: **"The Horror of the Hoop"** (poem by Wallace Irwin): Mocks the fashionable women's hoop skirt, exaggerating its absurd width. The male narrator laments that his courtship of "Mabel" will become impossible once she adopts this garment—she'll take up entire doorways and sidewalks, leaving no room for romance. The satire ridicules both the impracticality of women's fashion and male anxieties about it. **"Life's Automobile Device"** (illustration): Shows an early automobile loaded onto railroad flatcars to avoid muddy roads, satirizing both the fragility of primitive automobiles and the poor state of American infrastructure. **"When Doctors Disagree"**: Critiques mandatory vaccination, quoting an anti-vaccination doctor and celebrating a Georgia man acquitted for shooting an officer enforcing vaccination laws. This reflects genuine anti-vaccination sentiment of the era, presenting it as a freedom-of-choice issue. The remaining snippets ("Pleasant," "Excused") are brief humorous dialogues.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
AVOIDING ALL MUD OF COUNTRY ROADS, A BETTER CHANCE TO A The Horror of the Hoop. ABEL has a slender ** figger” M Like the pole that twines the bean— Her circumference will be bigger When she puts on crinoline ; Mabel shows but slight resistance When my arm about her loops— She will keep me at a distance When she wears those awful hoops, Oft at night I wake and tremble Thinking of that ghastly day ; Mabel’s skirts will soon resemble Nothing but a load of hay. * Standing room" will then be posted Every time she takes the floor, Every nerve will be exhausted Getting Mabel through a door. Then won't evenings be lonely On my darling’s fair ‘* front stoop”! 1 must fly, for there'll be only Room for Mabel—and her hoop. And in what unearthly Aiden Can I get the nerve to spoon With a rare and sainted maiden Half-way through a gas-balloon ? LIFE’S AUTOMOBILE DEVICE. 1H THE SCENERY, NO STENCH OF GAS Aye, forsooth, ‘twill take a wide walk Mabel not to discommode— No more room upon the sidewalk, I must weep out in the road. Mabel, heed this tearful carol, By dire Fashion's slats and coops— Don't become a lovely barrel Rolled about inside of hoops ! Wallace Irwin. When Doctors Disagree. TN! medical profession is certainly having lots of fun with us nowa- days, cutting out our interiors at several hundred dollars a cut and squirting us full of filth from other critters. Vaccination seems a terribly long time dying, but if more doctors would come out like the one quoted below, the work might be hastened : While utterly powerless for good, vaccination is a certain cause of disease and death in many cases, and is the probable cause of about 10,000 deaths annually in Great Britain by five inoculable diseases of the most terrible and disgusting char- < 08 FRIGHTENING HORSES, OR LOSS OF HUMAN LIFE, acter, which have increased to this extent, steadily, year by year, since vaccination has been enforced by penal laws. Apropos of which the following from Vaccination is of interest : Boss Garrett, the man who shot the officer who. tried to arrest him for refusal to be vaccinated, at Sandersville, Ga., an account of which was given in our columns, was cleared by the jury upon trial, Begins to look as if an American citizen might decide for himself what sort of medical treatment he would submit to. Pleasant. 7 HY is it that everybody loves Gadsby, when he has so many vices ?"* * Because they are the sort of v that never do anyone else any harm." Excused. E: You'll excuse me for picking up your gar— Sue: Certainly; don’t mention it! comicbooks.com