Life, 1909-05-06 · page 19 of 48
Life — May 6, 1909 — page 19: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
The top cartoon satirizes moving day chaos—furniture literally flies through the air as horses pull an overloaded cart. The caption "Furniture Carefully Removed" is ironic; nothing appears careful about this disaster. This appears to be generic slapstick humor rather than political commentary. Below are reader letters criticizing *Life* magazine itself. A University of Chicago subscriber accuses the publication of spreading "outrageous lies" about vivisection (animal testing) and attacking President Roosevelt. Another notes that Mike Donovan, who has "sparred with President Roosevelt for ten years," published a book about him—implying Donovan's perspective is predictable or irrelevant since readers already know Roosevelt. The "Big Game" cartoon at bottom appears to reference hunting, with the caption's joke about buckshot versus birdshot suggesting confusion about what ammunition one is actually being shot with—likely mocking someone's poor judgment. The page reveals *Life* as a publication willing to publish criticism of itself while maintaining satirical commentary on contemporary figures, particularly President Roosevelt.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
FURNITURE CAREFULLY REMOVED A Rare Tribut Tue University or Cuicaco April 15, 1909. Lire Pustisuine Co., New York. Sirs: The enclosed invitation to renew my subscription to Lire enables me to state to you again that you lost my subscrip- tion by the outrageous lies you told about vivisection and physicians and the out- rageous attacks you made on President Roosevelt. My only regret is that I could not deprive you of the majority of your subscribers until you have admitted that you have been lying and begin to publish a decent journal. Very truly yours, Atarrt P, Matnews. So Say We All IKE DONOVAN, ESQ., who has sparred with President Roosevelt for ten years, has issued a book entitled “The Roosevelt That I Know.’ Use- less labor, Mr. Donovan, That's the Roosevelt that we all know, “PERFECTLY MARMLESS. 1 THOUGHT AT FIRST IT WAS BIRDSHOT, BUT 1 SEE NOW THAT 17's ONLY BUCKSHOT! ’’ BIG GAME comicbooks.com