Life, 1909-07-29 · page 13 of 28
Life — July 29, 1909 — page 13: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page from *Life* magazine features a satirical article titled "Watch Out, Microbe, the Puritan Will Get You!" The main cartoon depicts a crowd confronting what appears to be a chauffeur, illustrating a story about attempting to cross a street. The article discusses **Sigyor Ferrero**, an Italian scholar who criticized American moral standards, and references **Governor Hughes** and **Mr. Jerome** as representatives of "Puritan" values in New York. The satire attacks the "Puritan microbe"—narrow-minded moralism—as both ineffective and hypocritical. The text argues this Puritanical strain remains powerful in American life, opposing boxing, drinking, and other activities, while the author questions whether such rigid moral policing actually improves society.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
y, 4 t Ue Yi Bystanders S ver WHERE'S THE CHAUFFEUR? axrest mim! “ MOLD ON, GENTLEMEN, 1/LL TELL YOU MOW IT WAS. I WAS TRYING TO CROSS THE MACHINE AND MOTIONED ME To GO Watch Out, Microbes, the Puritan Will Get You ! IGNOR FERRERO, the Italian schol- ar, who lately inspected us, confides to Paris Figero that America, so often accused of materialism, is still “ strongly inspired by puritanical tradition and democratic instincts.’ Mr. Alfred Mose- ly, Englishman, who looks us over at tentively every year or two, winds up some recent criticisms (in the World) of our methods in raising our children, by declaring that, in spite of the con tinual mixing of bloods here, we are not cosmopolitan, but are all New England- crs. New York, he says, is not Parisian but Puritan, and he avers that “the old stern, unbending, religio-moral spirit o New England’? is at the vital core of all our social, political and economic life Both of the doctors who thus agree in diagnosis, seem still to have good hopes for the patient. Their guess is right. It is true that the Puritan strain is still running strong BY—THE—sHocK—Was Too sUCH.”” in us, and that it shapes the standards of a majority (or perhaps a ruling mi nority) of the Americans who are out of jail. It is powerful stuff, and if we have, as Mr. Mosely finds, ‘ illimitable absorption,” it is because the icrobe is able, all the time, to bite and best the other microbes that invade his territory. The other microbes come crowding in with strong preju- dices of their own, but in the end they have to square their standards of de portment with “the unbending religio- moral spirit of New England.”’ The political strength of Governor Hughes is that he represents that spirit. The polit- ical error of Mr. Jerome has been that he has diluted the Puritan spirit with an infusion of sporting standards. Governor Hughes would never have been discov: ered shaking dice for drinks 4 with the Ryan hoys. The Puritan microbe is a narrow little beast, but tremendously enduring and effective. It is he that is making war on rum; he and his hypocrisies that in- a bar 141 =, STREET AND A CHAUFFEUR STOPPED 115, vented Raincs-law hotels; he that for- ever wants to make Sunday uncomfort- able. But in his bigoted way he loves righteousness and hates privilege. He on presently, when will beat high-protec he comes to understand it; beat it be- cause it is not fair, and because he is jealous of monopoly, and even of: ex- cessive wealth. He is a great resister, A PRAU-LINE comicbooks.com