Life, 1907-09-05 · page 23 of 36
Life — September 5, 1907 — page 23: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains two satirical pieces: **"Put It Aside for a Rainy Day!"** (left) is a poem by Wallace Irwin mocking financial schemes targeting working-class men. It critiques insurance salesmen like "Mr. McSwindle" who pressure laborers to sacrifice everyday pleasures (wine, cigars, amusements) for policies and savings plans. The satire suggests these salesmen enrich themselves while their clients live in deprivation—the "rainy day" never comes for ordinary workers, only for the agents collecting fees. **"The Happy Family in Dutchess County"** (right) is a humorous anecdote about Sheriff Bob Chanler, who personally manages his jail in Poughkeepsie rather than delegating to a deputy. The satire is gentler here: it portrays the jail as oddly pleasant, with good food and pie, suggesting prisoners live better than free citizens. The piece gently mocks this unusual hands-on approach to incarceration. The top cartoon depicts a doctor visiting a delirious patient, with the wife reporting her husband's lucid moment involved insulting the doctor and attacking medicine bottles—dark humor about medical incompetence.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Doctor; WAS YOUR HUSBAND HAD ANY LUCID INTERV. LS SINCE 1 WAS HERE LAST? “WELL, THIS MORNING HE KEPT SHOUTING THAT YOU WERE AN OLD POOL, AND HE TRIED TO BREAK THE MEDICINE BOTTLES.” Put It Aside for a Rainy Day! ORKINGMAN, spend not your ts on wine, n or yachts in a frivolous Take out a policy (you may have mine), Lay your spare mutual line: Put it aside for a rainy day! cash on the Think: of your wife, or your mother, or aunt Left, when you die, with the butcher to pay! ‘Think of the uninsured bogies that haunt Invalids dying in hunger and want— Put it aside for a rainy day! Mr. McSwindie will handle your pile Much likea cheerful big brother, they All that you'll give him he'll take w smile, Saying his comforting maxim the while, “Put it aside for a rainy day Cut down amusements, expenses, cigars, Live in a rather penurious way; spend across counters and Tic up your wages in any old thing, ‘Tontine, endowment or any old way; Justice docs stunts when McSwindle is king— He knows the handsome bring Thus laid aside for a rainy day! returns it will He gets a run for your money, I'm told, Frequently raising his annual pay, ing his home-nest securely with gold, Toasting his tocs while you're out in the cold— Laying it by for a rainy Wallace Irvin The Happy Family in Dutchess County ‘ORMER sheriffs of Dutchess County have been used to keep jail by deputy, but Sheriff Bob Chanler keeps his jail at Poughkeepsie himself. He is afraid that a deputy might not be kind and attentive enough to the prisoners and give them suitable food and wholesome amusements, So he looks after the himself—lives in it, we believe—and sees that the boarders have the kind of breakfast food they pre- fer, and the right sort of pie with every meal. We don't hear of any one who is hav- ing a peacefuler, pleasanter summer than Sheriff Bob’s boarders. They have no board bills to pay, no immediate anxietics and no responsibilities. The worst that can happen to them is to be tried for something presently and lifted out of Sheriff Bob's family circle. comicbooks.com