Life, 1905-09-07 · page 17 of 42
Life — September 7, 1905 — page 17: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains three separate satirical pieces mocking American modernization and hypocrisy: **"A Model Farm"** (top illustration): Shows a rural farmer boasting of elaborate, expensive machinery while his land appears chaotic. The satire targets farmers aspiring to industrial-scale agriculture despite lacking practical competence—the contradiction between aspirational modernism and actual capability. **"Announcement"** (garage advertisement): Absurdist satire on entrepreneurial excess. A garage owner advertises increasingly ridiculous amenities (fountain, sleeping apartments, a contraption that simulates being hit by a car, surgeons on-site). It mocks the era's obsession with commercial novelty and over-capitalization. **"Method"** (dialogue): A magazine writer admits he attacks Rockefeller cynically because each criticism prompts the tycoon to make a charitable donation—exploiting philanthropy for circulation. This exposes both sensationalist journalism and "conscience-washing" by the wealthy. The page satirizes Gilded Age contradictions: modern pretension masking incompetence, commercialism run amok, and corrupted morality cloaked in progress.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Modern Thanatopsis. O him who in the love of gra Holds communion with hee visibl forms, Je speaks a various langu: For his rs she has a voice of gladness. yer And she glides into his darker mu + With a mild and spot cash sympathy that js away their sharpress, Vere he is aware. Announcement. HAVE. just opened a new garage for the benefit of the public. A ntain in the center ay while my patrons are wait for their automobiles. leepin apartments for parties de- A fly-w tained over eel attach- 1 general auto so that patro r to be going mn hour. Occasion- © work of an auto- olter—will give the illusion that ally a hard jolt— victim has been run over. s served on the premises at all hours of the day and night. Surgeons in attendance, aL EsEs= A MODEL FARM. \PROM RURAL LIFE IN AMERICA.) My machinery is the most claborate and costly in the country. [had to machines before I could m hine is out of order, run atrial. If you come Mtce that it won't be I keep new parts constantly on 1. Swearing room in the rear Religious services will be held on nan specially en- are allowed twenty per cent. commission, where they suc- ceed in breaking down the mac th d the job is while. L will divide My te nably unreason- ble. Give me a triale You never go anywhere else—unless you selves orth he profits al will walk Hiram Redman ITTSBURGER Isn't our air gre: Visitor: The finest I eve 281 Memory. T is no doubt true that in the un tered days of quity, men’s memories were better than they re in our t The Homeric poems © preserved in memory for centu- ote ter the lapse of two scant years, even the best of us can ely recall the second y “The Good Old Su No doubt it is just of In Homer’s age, we m condition which must inev mple: d er civilization, give of unfortunat our vastly rise toa gr Method. IRST MAGAZINE WRITER: Why are you so bitter on Rocke- feller? Srcoxp M. W.: Ido i of conscien . matter ery time we jump on him hard, he gives away some money. comicbooks.com