Life, 1907-08-29 · page 5 of 24
Life — August 29, 1907 — page 5: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This satirical page mocks a purported "unwritten law" in Margaretville, N.Y., where farmers claim immunity from traffic laws while operating speeding automobiles. The main cartoon depicts rural citizens confronting a motorist, suggesting tension between traditional agrarian communities and modernization via automobiles. The smaller satirical vignettes below—"Broadening," "A Timid Folk," and "Obliging"—humorously contrast British and American cultural attitudes, with a final joke about a parrot's curse and a lady customer. The core satire targets rural resistance to modern laws and technology, while simultaneously poking fun at perceived British timidity versus American assertiveness. The piece reflects early 20th-century anxieties about automobiles disrupting established social order.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
HAT American shall not attain toa renewed sense of his nation's mis- sion, upon reading how, at Ascot, that assemblage of the best and brightest in all England, it remained for the day to be made signal by two American women, the one wearing a wrap trimmed with humming-birds, the other a hat as large as a baker’s tray and costing $500? Truly we owe an especial duty to the mother country. British right littleness THE NEW SPORT E FORMULATED A NEW ‘UNWRITTEN LAW’ FOR THEMSELVES. AND ESCAPE ALL LEGAL CONSEQUENCES.” A SPEEDING AUTOMOBILE and tight littleness, admirable though these famous traits have been in their day, are no longer enough. Frankly, what our cousins over the sca most need. is breadth of horizon, and if hummi: bird wraps and baker’s-tray hats don’t serve the purpose, our resources are by no manner of means exhausted. R, B. A Timid Folk “ENGLAND hasn’t had a war for me time.” , they don’t dare, They’re afraid Alfred Austin might write an ode about it” Obliging ADY CUSTOMER: What does this parrot say? Boy: Curse for the lady, Poll. THEY HAVE —New York Times. HELLO, MARK! WHERE DID YOU GET THAT HAT? comicbooks.com