Life, 1907-01-17 · page 25 of 60
Life — January 17, 1907 — page 25: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page satirizes early automobile culture and social changes of the era. **"The Motor Driver"** poem depicts a man frantically repairing a car—a metaphor for modern life's exhausting demands. The accompanying cartoon shows two men discussing an auto, with dialogue mocking inflated advertising claims ("four to sixty miles an hour"). **"Touring with an Auto"** offers tongue-in-cheek advice assuming readers have mortgaged their homes to buy cars. The satire targets: - The automobile's unreliability (loose bolts, rotten inner tubes) - Wives as nagging travel companions (wanting tops up when husbands want them down) - The expense (fill your toolbox with money, not tools) **"Our Want Column"** advertises for "old-fashioned mothers" to care for babies—satirizing modern women's priorities. It implies young mothers prefer golf, clubs, opera, and bridge over childcare, marking anxiety about changing gender roles and domesticity in the Progressive Era. The overall message criticizes consumerism, unreliable technology, and shifting social values as distinctly modern problems.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
The Motor Driver U NDER a crimson touring car ‘The motor driver sprawls. very mighty man is he, Yet like a worm he crawls ; And first at this he takes a tug, And then at that he hauls. He's covered o'er with dust and dirt, His face is like the tan, His brow is wet with oil and sweat, He docs whate’er he can, And tinkers with most ev'ry place— A very desperate man! And children coming home from school Look at him on the ground ; They love to see him lying there, y love to hear him pound ; And then at last they sce him rise And then the wheels go round, ‘Thanks, thanks to thee, my worthy friend, For the lesson thou hast taught! Thus, at the motor car of life Our fortunes must be wrought. We have to do much tinkering— Though of a diffrent sort. “Look mere! YES, oR. Touring with an Auto OTHING jis more enjoyable than touring the country with an auto. The following directions will be found valuable : After you have mortgaged GAIL your house and got your auto, go over it carefully with a set of = tools and a divining rod to see that it is kind and sound. Sometimes a loose nut or bolt will leave the chassis without asking to be excused, and leave you alone with your wife, where there is no escape Take along plenty of tires and inner tubes. Remember that inner tubes are a necessity. Blow them up first to see that they are all right. ‘Then stow them carefully away where they get eat of the engine, so that they wi be rotten enough when nt to use them. An only inner tube that is as brittle slendid thing when you have a puncture. It m: for self-control If you have any room left in your tool box, be sure and fill it with money, You can, on an auto tour, get along without anything but money. If there is any doubt about this, throw away, s take your wife along. Her kindly advice and friendly ms will be a source of constant comfort to you. When you want the top down, she will want it up. When you want to run on ten miles further to a hotel that is really good, she will be too tired to move. When you have fifty miles to make in two hours, her hair will have to be done all over. This will add to the variety of the trip. If you have any babies, take them along also. A couple of babies and a trained nurse on an auto trip are highly desirable. Select a trained nurse with a good figure and an affectionate critic YOU ADVERTISED THIS ALTO Yo! MILES AN HOUR.” Tuat’s RIcHT. SOLD ME TO CO FROM YOUR TO SIXTY YOUR MILES UP HILLS AND SIXTY DowN."” disposition. Put your wife in the back seat, strap the babies on the rear, and have the nurse sit with you. amine your steering gear at frequent interv If it gets out of order, it will do so in spite of this, but in case you are dashed into a telegraph-pole and sent to kingdom come, you will afterward have the supreme satisfaction of knowing that you didn’t do it without proper precautions being taken before- hand. When the Pendulum Swings Back ANOTHER generation had come and gon of lofty endeavor. a generation hese jumbles, dearest,” he was saying, reaching for his fourth, with evident relish, ‘‘are just like my mother used to consider herself created for something better and higher and nobler than to make.” Our Want Column W TED—Old joned mothers to work upon babi Those who do not care particularly for golf, women’s clubs, the opera and bridge. Must be willing and obliging and able to sit up nights. In short, not afraid of work and trouble. Accomplishments not necessary. A fair working knowledge of the language is the only requirement NE HuNpRED PRESIDENTS needed at once to work on railroad. Short hours and easy pay. ‘The only requirement is that they be honest. Wastep IMmepiateLy—Several thousand rich men’s sons who are willing to make themselves generally useful Avtnors Nreprep—Several authors can be employed in- definitely on works of art, the only requirement being a large experience of life, a tremendous perseverance, no desire to make maney, and an eagerness t6 attain perfection before publication, comicbooks.com