Life — October 31, 1907 — page 6: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# Analysis of Life Magazine Page 510 The top illustration depicts two women pointing toward a distant seashore landscape, captioned "It is probable that Anthony Comstock enjoyed his summer season at the seashore." This is a satirical jab at **Anthony Comstock**, the notorious anti-obscenity crusader who led the "Comstock Laws" campaign. The women's pointing gesture and knowing expressions suggest mockery of his moral policing efforts. The cartoon implies Comstock hypocritically enjoyed leisure activities while condemning others' freedoms. The page's text discusses "new ethics" for women, particularly Swedish author Ellen Key's ideas about marriage, love outside marriage, and parental authority—clearly progressive social positions Life's editors found worth satirizing against Comstock-style moral conservatism. The contrast between puritanical censorship and actual human behavior is the joke's essence.