Life, 1909-04-15 · page 11 of 36
Life — April 15, 1909 — page 11: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This illustration satirizes celebrity culture and anti-vaccination sentiment. The sketch depicts a wealthy performer's apartment filled with his own portrait photographs—a visual joke about vanity and self-absorption. The accompanying text, "You Have Time," presents eight numbered arguments *against* vaccination, claiming vaccines cause disease, violate civil rights, and contradict scientific principles. The satire works by associating anti-vaccination ideology with the shallow narcissism of a "matinee idol"—suggesting that vaccine skepticism is as frivolous and self-centered as celebrity obsession. The piece mocks both anti-vaxxers and celebrity culture simultaneously, implying that rejecting public health measures reflects the same disconnected vanity as surrounding oneself with personal portraits.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
A CORNER IN THE APARTMENTS OF A MATINEE IDOL, You Have Time N fact, it is never too late for vac- cination. But in case you are among those who are hanging back we give a few points for your en- couragement : They are from “An Address to the People of America.” The Anti-Vaccination League _ of America, at its first Annual Confer- ence, held in Philadelphia from the toth to the 21st of October, 1908, solemnly declares to the people of America: gue has in its possession, and available for use at any convenient time and pl i vaccine virus, which is composed of li putrid matter from decayed animal tissue, is, without ex- ception, poisonous to the blood. Second: That the varieties of vaccine virus now in gen- eral use are not derived from cowpox, but are a product of human smallpox matter inoculated into the calf; and that the whole human race is now threatened with a return of the de- vastations of smallpox by reason of the use of this smallpox infected virus. Third: That the league has i dence and positive proof that vaccina smallpox, has ¢: a y causing a other diseases of a most serious and often fa Fourth: That absolutely indisputable and official evidence exists, which can be produced at any time, proving that vac- cination never has prevented the spread of ‘smallpox, but that, on the contrary, the greatest epidemics recorded in history have raged aniong the vaccinated. th: That unvaccinated communities such as nearly two-thirds of the cantons of Switzerland and the city of Leicester, England, where vaccination has not been enforced for many na years, are to-day, and have been, freer from smallpox than any parts of the vaccinating world. Sixth: That toleration of vaccination by the people is se- cured by the deliberate suppression and distortion of facts, and by the continued publication and re-publication, in medical journals and works, of statistics apparently favorable to vac- cination that have repeatedly been proved to be false and bogus. Seventh: That vaccination violates the known laws of biology and is contrary to irue science: and, further, that the injection of the products of discased tissues of animals into the blood of human beings is an abhorrent practice and an inexcusable medical crime. , Eighth: That the enforcement of vaccination by law is a violation of civil and natural rights which should not, and will