Life, 1908-11-12 · page 17 of 24
Life — November 12, 1908 — page 17: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
**Top Cartoon ("During His Visit"):** A woman in a motor car complains to her companion that horses seem "tame" compared to automobiles. The satire mocks the newly wealthy's fascination with motorcar technology and their dismissal of traditional transportation—suggesting superficial status-seeking among the social elite. **"More Municipal Blundering" Section:** Criticizes New York City's Fifth Avenue widening project. The satire highlights the absurd consequences: narrower sidewalks now crowded with enormous women's hats (the "Merry Widow" style, apparently three feet in diameter with elaborate decoration), while the widened avenue merely accommodates more hansoms (horse-drawn carriages). The author sardonically proposes leaving the avenue unchanged to preserve both practicality and "picturesqueness." **"The Latest Report" Section:** Satirizes educational expansion as self-serving: creating more teaching positions, courses, and textbooks primarily benefits administrators and publishers rather than students, who receive less play time and more vaccinations and operations under modern education's complications. **Bottom reference to Senators:** Oblique criticism of political corruption, likening senators' behavior to Standard Oil's notorious practices.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
‘DURING HIS VISIT LAM AFRAID YOU FIND HORSES RATHER TAME AFTER YOUR MOTOR The Latest Report JHE educational situation up to date can be summed up rather briefly, to wit: The effort to create as many new positions as possible. he more courses of study there are, the more people will have to be employed to teach them, and the more text books will be sold. The people at large will also be pleased, as the more com- plicated becomes our educational system, the more they think they are getting for their money. On the other hand, the children don’t need so much time to play, as they are not so strong as they used to be. This naturally gives them more time for study. Besides, in case they break down, medical science is on hand, to vaccinate them periodically, operate on them occasionally, change their diet con- tinually as new fads appear, and cheer them with selected serums. As for the three Rs, they have been pigeon- holed. They once served a useful purpose. In company with a log cabin school house— where whiffs of fresh air wandered about at liberty, out having to give the countersign—they furnished a habit now obsolete: Concen- tration. Of course at that time, when concentration was in vogue, we were a much more simple folk than we are at present 535 More Municipal Blundering HE New York City authorities have chosen the worst possible year in which to broaden Fifth Avenue. By reducing the width of each side- walk seven feet they fourteen feet in the middle of the avenue, or room for two rows of han- soms. But what of the Heaven knows they were crowded enough before, but now that each sidewalk is to hold two less rows of Merry Widow hats, foot traffic will be vir- tually impossible. The average hat for women (1908 model) is a lit- ule under three feet in neter, not includ- the velvet bows, y veiling and de- funct birds, so that the net result of the change will be merely—two more hansoms in the street and four less hats on the side- walk / “Why not leave the avenue as it is and allow four rows of hats in the middle of the highway—two up and two down —and one line of hansoms on the extreme verge of each side- walk? This would not/oniy heighten the picturesqueness of the avenue but would save the taxpayers a pretty pot of money. have gained sidewalks? ing OST of the Senators of the United States seem to have been taking correspond. ence lessons from the Standard Oil Co, This scems to have been of some edu cational value, but have they all been grad uated? “ FOLLOWING SUIT’? comicbooks.com