Life, 1909-04-15 · page 10 of 36
Life — April 15, 1909 — page 10: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains three separate satirical pieces about modern industrial life: **"The Intruder" ("Vae Victis!")** mocks steam power's displacement of natural resources. A skeletal figure representing coal depletion stands atop a skull labeled "SOMETHING ON HIS MIND." The text critiques how steam engines waste coal—nine of every ten tons burned is wasted—and warns that the coal supply will be exhausted within a century. **"One Would Have Done"** presents a nurse announcing triplets to a man, who protests about overpopulation. **"Premature"** shows dialogue between an old man (Randall) and Rogers in New York, joking about the Museum of Art. The dominant theme is anxiety about industrial progress consuming natural resources unsustainably—a pre-1920s concern about energy depletion and technological excess.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
“YES, ME WAS SUCH A HIGH FLYER IN WIS YOUTH THAT NOW ME MAS THE Gout IN ms wines.” One Would Have Done URSE: I wish to tell you, sir, that you have just become en the father of triplet Noh Paden Noorar: Oh! This is two too much! THE INTRUDER Vae Victis! TEAM has enabled us to achieve a very signal victory over nature—quite to discomfort the old dame, in fact. Nature, it scems, carefully stocked the earth with as much coal as she figured would last while certain problems of destiny were being worked out. There was a lot of it, to begin with, and she might well ugh at man’s efforts to put her in the hole—espe- cially at the invention of cookery, which was mere child’s play, A hundred thousand years wouldn't sce the end of the coal, with nobody but the cooks ing it. dly more serious was the practice of overheating houses, whereby the jani- tors were brought into the game. For even at that it would take ten thousand years to use up the coal. But when steam came in, with all its devices by means of which, out of every ten tons of coal burned nine should be wasted, there was something doing—the complete exhaustion of the coal supply was a matter of less than a century. Tt is easy to fancy nature’s chagrin How is she ever to save her poor old face? Ramsey Benson. Premature ANDALL: Halloa, old man. So you're here in New York! Have you been to the Museum of Art, yet? Rocers: Nope. You see, we've only The Monk: 1¥ 1 CAN MOLD THIS POSE. FOR ANOTHER MINUTE SOMETHING ON MIS MIND lived here fifteen years. I'VE COT THAT LION PLUFFED TO A FRAZ;