Life, 1908-03-12 · page 9 of 20
Life — March 12, 1908 — page 9: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
**Top Cartoon:** "The New York and Paris Auto Race—Tire Trouble in Siberia" depicts an automobile stranded in snowy wilderness with a "Irkutsk 2000 Mls" sign, satirizing the famous 1908 New York to Paris automobile race. The joke mocks the extreme conditions and distance involved in this real international racing event. **Middle Cartoon:** Shows two fashionably dressed women in large hats with caption "Blush not if on your weapons charms I cast a vagrant eye— The cast is permanent. I could not help it I'd try." This appears to be social satire about women's fashion and romantic entanglements. **Text Sections:** Include humorous letters and anecdotes about Chicago society conflicts, Japanese-American relations, and employment matters—typical satirical content of the era.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
THE NEW YORK AND PARIS AUTO RACE—TIRE TROUBLE IN SIBERIA ticular moment! Lire has not hesitated to express its contempt for what it so properly describes as John D. Rockefeller’s new “Hall of Agon: incerely yours, Mary D. Fiske. February 14, 1908. IFE PUBLISHING COMPANY: Gentlemen—The following incident hap- pened at the Pennsylvania Railroad Twen- ty-third Street Station: Blush not if on your winsome charms I cast a vagrant eye— ‘The cast is permanent, I could not help it if I'd try. ScENE: The usual crowd of cabs, people and newsboys. Leaning up against a window, next to the entrance, was a very, very intoxicated man, feet out in front of him and head swaying from side to side, unable to stand alone, A rsboy about nine years old stood in front of him, and with one hand, fingers out- spread against the man’s stomach, was try ing to hold him up, while in the other hand he had a bundle of evening papers. After holding the man a few seconds, he called out to another urchin: “ Aw, you come and hold him now; I got’er sell me papers!” Yours trul H. L. Bettcner. February 8, 1908. Opportune Self-Effacement CCORDING to last advices, our approaching war with Japan is not, after all, to be embarrassed by a distract- ing social conflict in Chicago, where, until just the other day, Mr. J. Ogden Armour’s coachman and Mrs. Potter Palmer’s coachman were at odds over a question of precedence in connection with the grand ball of the “coachmen, maids and butlers of the truly elite.” Mrs. Potter Palmer’s coachman, it now transpires, has patriotically yielded and his timely magnanimity solves the alarm- ing nodus. While Mr. J. Ogden Armour’s coachman has, perhaps, in the happy phrase of the society columns, absorbed the situation, it is Mrs. Potter Palmer’s coachman who merits especially well of his country. An heroic statue of him, mounted on his box, is the least which will satisfy a great nation’s just sense of gratitude. Ramsey Benson. Suspicious? OUNT LADISLAUS SZECHENYI, who married Miss Vanderbilt, is said to have exclaimed when beset by camera fiends in London, “Are we suspicious characters?” Our answer to that question would be in the negative. He certainly procured it honestly; that is, honestly, compared with many American financiers. And if the average American citizen who has hap- pened to think of the matter considers Count Széchényi a suspicious character it doesn’t really follow that he really is, don’t you know. The Wrong One ADY: I’m looking for a governess for my children. MANAGER OF INTELLIGENCE OFFICE: Didn't we supply ‘you with one last week ? Yes?! “Well, madam, according to her re- port, you don’t need a governess. You need a lion-tamer.” comicbooks.com