Life, 1908-11-05 · page 19 of 48
Life — November 5, 1908 — page 19: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
**Top Cartoon ("A Congo Quick Lunch"):** A caricatured Black figure (drawn in the deeply racist style typical of early 1900s American magazines) sits at a table demanding quick service, while a frightened waiter flees. The title references "Congo," playing on contemporary stereotypes about African people as "savage" or "primitive." The joke relies on dehumanizing racial caricature—a standard form of casual racism in this era's popular media. **"The World and Wall Street" Section:** Satirizes newspaper rivalry and defensive journalism. The *Atlantic Monthly* published an anonymous critique of the *New York World's* economic coverage as ignorant. The *Wall Street Journal* republished this, and the *World* responded by insinuating the *Journal's* editor wrote it—attempting to discredit the criticism by suggesting bias. The satire questions whether origin matters if the criticism is factually true. **Right cartoon ("Out of His Line"):** A portrait painter refuses to include a woman's new hat, claiming landscape painting isn't his specialty—a joke about the hat's presumably outlandish size or appearance.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Copyright 1008 by Lite Pobtiahing Company A CONGO QUICK LUNCH Famished Guest: 1 WANT EVERYTHING IN SIGHT AND | WANT IT QUICK The World and Wall Street Out of His Line ENTLY the Atlantic Monthly published a piece, “(OOD morning, sir,” says the lady, entering the studio stated to be from the pen of a well-known New of the famous portrait painter. “1 wish to engage York editor (who, for obvious reasons, withheld you to paint my portrait.” his name), which proceeded to “rip up"’ the “T shall be delighted, madam.”* New York papers. No names were mentioned, “T want it painted with my new hat on.”* $Z but from the description given, it was quite easy “Pardon me, madam, but I am not a landscape artist."* «0 pick. them out. Among other things, the writer described the World as knowing absolutely nothing about economics, and stated that its articles on Wall street were stupid and incorrect, or words to that effect. Later the Wall Street Journal copied from the Atlantic Monthly this paragraph about the World, with comments of its own. Whereupon the World copies the Wall Street Journal's version, and asks whether the very able editor of the Wall Street Journal was not himself the very able writer of the article in the Atlantic. What if he was? That would not necessarily affect the truth of his statement that the World doesn’t know anything about economics. . Perhaps, however, the World, by making the insinuation, meant to imply that the mere fact that the statement was made by a man connected, even in a semi-liter- ary with Wall street, would preclude him from knowing anything about economics himself. There may be truth in that. Conditions ODD: Do you think it is possible for a man to live in New York on ten thousand a year? Top He might, if he rode on street cars, took only one Prof. Bug: AW! AT LAST 1 AM VINDICATED, 1 ALWAYS HELD paper, and lived on prunes. THAT THE MOON WAS INMABITED comicbooks.com