Life, 1908-03-05 · page 15 of 36
Life — March 5, 1908 — page 15: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains satirical commentary on gambling and social hypocrisy circa the Progressive Era (likely early 1900s, given Roosevelt reference). **The main cartoon** ("The Passing Show") depicts well-dressed figures observing what appears to be a railroad or industrial scene—likely representing wealthy observers of labor or commercial activity. **The text satirizes anti-gambling reformers** who seek to eliminate stock speculation and horse-race betting from the mails. The author argues these crusaders miss the point: gambling naturally flourishes during economic booms ("Flush Times") and actually serves a social purpose by redistributing money from the unfit to hold it. The piece cynically suggests losing at betting provides moral lessons about covetousness. **A secondary joke** mocks a man smoking a cigar in a streetcar full of ladies—punishment suggested is magnifying his offense absurdly (sitting on an enlarged cigar for "a couple million years"). The satire targets Progressive-era moral reformism, suggesting well-intentioned but naive efforts to legislate morality miss economic and social realities.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
How is that? said Hippias. I hope, he added, you agree with what I say? ‘At this all the company, perceiving Socrates was anxious over something, arose. Yes, he said, Hippias, I agree with what you say, only I must be going along and I advise your doing the same. For, as I said, your long talk came near getting me into trouble. This is the hour, Hip- pias, when my wife gives an afternoon tea, and should I fail to be there, I might not be able to attend another symposium for a season. At this Hippias turned pale. Promise me, he said, that nothing of my speech will be repeated. Because, Socrates, he added, pleadingly, I, too, for the moment had entirely forgotten that I was a married man. And they hurried out arm in arm, the sympathy of the whole company being with them. “THE PASSING SHOW” The Flowers that Bloom in the Muck, Tra-la UR friends who are so urgent to turn the stock gamblers out of the mails and stop race-track betting and eliminate stakes from all bridge-whist, probably do not realize to how considerable an tent they are kicking a moribund dog. All the kinds of gambling are flowers that find their most exuberant growth in the muck-heap known as Flush Times. In so far as President Roosevelt has been instrumental in checking prosperity in its mad course he has done a vast deal more to check stock speculation than seems likely ever to be done by any law that is sound enough to stay on the statute books. And further: Is due credit given to stock speculation and race-track betting for their serviceableness in detaching promptly from their money persons in whose hands it is inexpedient that money should remain? Persons who are reason- ably fit to have money in considerable amount rarely lose too large a share of it betting on stocks or horse races. What they do lose often does them good by giving them drastic, first-hand lessons about the sin of covetousness, and the folly of trying to get too rich too quick. It is not wise to try to blow out all the candles in order to save the wings of the moths. It can’t be done; the moths aren’t worth it, and the world is short of light and long of moths. Deserved Hs MAJE What is the charge against this newcomer? “He went into a street car full of ladies holding a lighted cigar in his hand.” “Well, magnify that cigar about two thousand times and let him sit on the end of it for a couple of million years.” N flee to the city for solitude; the. village is too sociable. comicbooks.com