Life, 1906-12-20 · page 16 of 46
Life — December 20, 1906 — page 16: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
**Main Article: "Get After the Chauffeurs"** This is a serious editorial critiquing early automobile drivers ("chauffeurs") for reckless driving that kills pedestrians. The piece argues that when drivers cause fatal accidents, they face minimal legal consequences—merely fines for speeding—unlike murderers. The author demands stricter accountability, noting France treats such deaths as serious crimes rather than accidents. The underlying point: new technology (automobiles) has outpaced legal frameworks, and wealthy drivers escape justice for killing innocents. **Cartoon Jokes:** 1. **"Boss" cartoon**: A racist joke about hiring preferences; transcends this page's main topic. 2. **"Snap-Shots in Hades"**: Depicts Hell's "grand opera" as punishment for various wrongdoers, including bad opera singers who torture neighbors with practice. This reflects early-1900s cultural anxieties about amateur musicians. **"Reduced Price" Joke**: A clergyman agrees to lower marriage fees if the groom refrains from kissing the bride—playing on jealousy stereotypes.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Get After the Chauffeurs HE suggestion was lately made in con- vention that it would help very much to make human life safer in New York if a suitable apparatus could be put up in Madison Square and a dozen reckless chauffeurs could be hanged on it. The reply was, ‘A dozen? Saya dozen a week. > two or three hundred of those s that need hanging.” We read every day of innocent people being killed or hurt by we never read th: gree of inconvenience has by the chauffeur who did the killing. Nothing of any consequence seems to happen to the homicidal chauffeurs, unless they happen to be the victims of the accidents they cause. One of them who came racing down a drive in Central Park at midnight the other night with a convivial party of his friends, ran into another machine, broke his own neck and killed two or three of his companions. That one got his dues. His reck driving was a crime. The result of it was homicide. If he had not been killed he should have been sent to State’s prison But no one seems to take that view of chauffeurs’ antics. They are fined from time to time for fast driving, but that is all. We ne heard of a chauffeur being sent to prison for hilarious or reckless speeding. But is homicide by automobile so much less culpable than homicide with a gun? There will be some legitimate automo- bile accidents, just as there are runaway- horse accidents, but they should be few Horses are irresponsible, and cannot be Boss: MERCY MEY WHAT WE WANT IS A COLORED BOY Applicant: AIN'T 1 YELLOW FNOVCH? \ SNAP-SHOTS IN HADES SATAN'S GRAND OPERA—A SPECIAL PUNISHMENT YOR VARIOUS KINDS OF MALEFACTORS, INCLUDING TILE IMPOSSIBLE, ASPIRANTS YOR OPERATIC YAMY WHO MABITUALLY TORTURE NEIGHBORS WITH THER, PRACTICE. ASPIRANTS' MONEY, ALSO, FRONT SEATS FOR THE LYST punished for running away. Chauffeurs, as a rule, are very imperfectly responsible, but they can be punished for running away and held accountable for the harm they do. We are absurdly behindhand in bring- ing home to these men their responsi bility. Our laws seem not yet to have been adjusted to their cases. We still incline to rate as accidents what are nothing less than crimes. ‘They do better in France. When young Shepard ran over and killed somebody there, French law declined to accept his apology, but made him serious and protracted trouble. We must take a leaf out of the French TOR WHO HAS THE NERVE TO TAKE THE 1MfPossiBLe book and get more of our motor-car sinners into jail. “ DEARY got nearer the Pole, didn’t he, than any one else ?” “Yes, One book nearer.” A Reduced Price ROSPECTIVE BRIDEGROOM: How much will you charge to marry R: Twenty-five dollars. “All right. By the way, sir, I'm of a ‘alous nature. Would you mind not ing the bride?” “Very well, sir. The charge in that case will only be five dollars.”