Life, 1907-04-11 · page 11 of 24
Life — April 11, 1907 — page 11: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This illustration satirizes the absurdity of optimistic consumer spending during uncertain economic times. The cartoon shows a cluttered garden scene overflowing with gardening supplies, seed catalogs, and tools—labeled with brand names like "Burpee's Seeds" and " Guerande"—while a well-dressed man peers in from outside, apparently trying to find space or justify the purchases. The accompanying text's joke about the automobile "Margin" going "so swiftly" likely references buying on credit margin, a practice common before the 1929 stock market crash. The piece mocks how consumers eagerly purchase luxuries despite financial precarity, expecting perpetual prosperity. The garden represents aspirational, perhaps frivolous, domestic spending habits of the era.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
*LIFE- 519 ———4 CATERPILLAR: Po Graton \ wor 999 eae 120 VARIETIES OF THE FINEST FLoweR ste; FOR THE GARDEN Jack: WELL, EVERYTHING HAS ARRIVED ON TIME. Jill: VS, DEARIE, THERES $0 MUCH PLEASURE IN STORE FOR US. The Instalment Plan BOUGHT an edition de luxe Of the “Li of the World's Famous Crooks.” When [’ve passed away, My heirs will still pay A dollar a month for those books. Success UCCESS is an ancient game of chance in which the chances are all against the player. ‘The winnings are ivided into three classes—First, money; second, ; and third, MONEY. ‘There are also a few other things like character that count a little. The rules of the game are very strict. Cheating is not allowed—if discovered. Some have played according to rule and even been successful, but not as we speak Financial OCAL NOTE.—Wall Street, recently—To go into a broker's office almost any day about now is to intrude upon a bereavement. ‘Two out of three of the Wall Street patients have had a tooth out, and though the ache has stopped, the vacant place is very sore. But Wall Street is not the only sore spot. Fifty railroad men sat around the fountain in the Pompeian room of the Auditorium Annex in Chicago the second week in March. They exchanged confidential opinions about President Roose- velt. When one presumed to say that the President was not alone to blame, his neighbors did not waste words on him, ‘They simply threw him into the fountain, where the water is four feet deep. HACKENSACK man calls his new automobile “Margin” because it goes so swiftly. comicbooks.com