Life, 1907-05-23 · page 11 of 24
Life — May 23, 1907 — page 11: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains two allegorical horse races personifying abstract concepts and virtues. The illustration depicts children as jockeys riding horses named for human qualities: Honesty, Kindness, Bluff, Courage, Fame, Luck, Money, Display, and others. The cartoon satirizes American society by racing these personified traits against each other across different time periods ("Nineteenth Century" and "Twentieth Century"). The races track which virtues supposedly "win" in each era—suggesting the author's commentary on shifting values. For example, in the nineteenth-century race, Honesty wins; in the twentieth century, traits like Money and Yellow Journalism (vulgar sensationalism) advance further. The small dialogue beneath the illustration pokes fun at parental hypocrisy regarding sportsmanship.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
PROMISING “DO YOU THINK MY MAMMA WILL NOTICE IF 1 ACT AS UMPIRE OF YOUR GAME ?” “NAW—SHE WON'T KNOW You.” RACING NEWS NINETEENTH CENTURY Futurity Course. Life Track Weather—Cloudy. Purse—Success. Track—Heavy Horses Jocks Honesty. Perseverance Graft. Influence Money Luck Bluff Egotism. Yellow Journalism. Fame Quarter Money goes to the front and is at the quarter by three lengths. Luck is second and Bluff third, with the field bunched four lengths behind. Half Money still leads, but Display has run her off her feet and *~LIFE- 7 she is all in. Bluff and Kindness are tied for second place and the field is strung out. Courage is bringing Fame up well Three-Quarters Kindness is in the lead. Fame is second, outrunning Blu by a length. Honesty is fast overtaking the leaders. Stretch ‘They are into the stretch with Fame, Honesty and Kindness running together and pulling way ahead of the field. Finish Honesty wins by three lengths and Fame is a nose ahead of Kindness for second place. Perseverance had Honesty welt in hand throughout the race and was an easy winner. Fame and Kindness were evenly matched, but Courage rode a little Letter than Happiness and deserved second place. Time: 20 years TWENTIETH CENTURY Same Track, Weather, Course, Purse and Entries Quarter Honesty is left at the post, otherwise the horses get away good. Fame is at the quarter by two lengths. Egotism is second and Luck third, a length ahead of the field. Half Luck is first at the half, with Money coming up strong and Bluff barely leading the bunch for third. Three-Quarters By a sensational spurt Vulgarity brings Yellow Journalism to the front. Money is second, with Bluff a hard third and Graft coming along easy. Stretch Influence brings Graft into the stretch neck and neck with Money, and Bluff still holds third place. Yellow Journalism dies in the stretch. Finish Graft wins by a head in the last fifty yards, with Money second, and four lengths ahead of Bluff, who has tired fast in the last quarter and was only kept up by Nerve. Graft seemed to get stronger as the race went on, and in a sixteenth more would have been four lengths ahead of Money. Display had ridden Money off her feet and she could not have gone much farther. Luck was a good horse and should have showed, but Plunger ran him all out in the first part of the race. Time: 5 years. Huntley Child. G is that gift of the gods which makes a man eight {cet tall in a crowd. If he wishes to shake hands, nobody can reach up to him. If he has a notion to kiss a pretty girl, he has to stoop so enormously, and make such a spectacle of himself, that there’s no fun in it. f In short, he is denied about all the larger comforts. Nor is he deserving of any credit. If anybody praises him, he is not tickled, knowing in his heart that he can’t help being a genius. Prometheus was the first genius. they say. Divine Fire He is still getting his, Most anybody would rather be the iceman. comicbooks.com