Life — May 30, 1907 — page 3: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# Analysis The top illustration references "The Teddyssey, Book VI—Arbitration," depicting Theodore Roosevelt mediating peace between "the Hyperboreans and the Warriors of Japanoesus"—a satirical commentary on Roosevelt's 1905 mediation of the Russo-Japanese War, which earned him a Nobel Peace Prize. Below are two brief humor pieces: "If Money Would Then of Course" jokes about a department store owner's extravagant requests, and "Arrest the Smoky Automobiles" critiques early automobiles for polluting city air with exhaust smoke—a genuine urban complaint in the early 1900s. The cartoon sidebar shows a terrier making a joke about musical preferences versus fashion choices (a "barcarole suit"). The satire targets Roosevelt's diplomatic ambitions and contemporary urban pollution concerns.