Life, 1906-11-01 · page 34 of 56
Life — November 1, 1906 — page 34: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page from *Life* magazine contains three satirical items: **Top cartoons**: Two circus scenes. Left shows a pickpocket instructing someone to hide peanuts in a coat tail while watching the circus—a joke about theft disguised as entertainment. Right depicts an elephant throwing a woman and child, captioned "She Watches"—dark humor about circus danger. **Middle section**: Two brief satirical dialogues. "The Voice of Duty" mocks a pickpocket bureau chief praising a new thief for being "conscientious" about stealing. "No Comparison" presents a healer telling a patient not to fear God, only his wife—satirizing both faith healers and marital relationships. **Bottom**: A puzzle competition offering fifty-dollar prizes for solving "What's the Matter?"—showing the magazine's reader-engagement contests. The overall tone ridicules contemporary institutions: circus fraud, petty crime professionalization, quack medicine, and domestic anxiety. The humor relies on inverted morality and understated absurdity typical of early 1900s *Life* satire.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
MVES, MARM, ALL ELEPHANTS TAKE NATURALLY TO MP. NOW HLL HIDE THESE PEANUTS IN MY COAT-TAIL POCKET, AND YOU JUST WATCH TH CIRCUS.” sue warenrs The Voice of Duty No Comparison =AD OF THE PICKPOCKET BUREAU: How’s that HEALER: The first thing you must do is to banish all fear new boy getting on? from your mind. You mustn’t even fear God. Manacer: I think he’s going to do well. _ He’s a little Prospective PATIENT: But, my dear sir, it isn’t a question slow, but very conscientious. of God, it’s a question of my wife WHAT'S THE MATTER? WHAT SORT OF MESSAGE IS HE RECEIV WHY THIS DELIGHT So SUDDENLY 1D BY UNWELCOSE NEWS ? FOR TUE BYST SOLUTIONS OF THE MYSTERY, TCLD IN NOT MORE THAN THREE MUNORED WORDS AND RECEMED BEFORE JANUARY, 1907. “LITE” WILL GIVE TOUR PRIZES OF FLFTY DOLLARS FACIL INSTEAD OF TEN PRIZES OF TEN DOLLARS EACH AS STATED IN THE CAST ISSUE. FURTHERMORE, ALL OTHER CONTRIBETIONS ACCEPTED WILL BE PAID FOR AT THE RATE OF TEN DOLLARS FACH comicbooks.com