Life, 1909-08-12 · page 12 of 28
Life — August 12, 1909 — page 12: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
**Top Cartoon:** A chaotic scene depicting what appears to be a laboratory or inventor's workshop. A mouse-like character questions "What's the matter here?" and receives the reply: "Matter! Why every time I go to press the button he draws in his head." This satirizes the unpredictable nature of mechanical or automated systems—possibly mocking early 20th-century gadgetry and its failures. **Bottom Cartoon:** Two men discuss "A Fair Exchange." One proposes trading a "sure cure for rheumatism" for a "straight tip on the ponies" (horse racing). This satirizes common folk remedies and the prevalence of gambling advice, reflecting period anxieties about dubious medical claims and gambling culture among working-class men.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Manaroen fang Mr. Mouse: WHAT'S THE MATTER HERE? MATTER! WHY EVERY TIME 1 GO TO PRESS THE BUTTON ME DRAWS IN 11S MEAD.” fificen cents for a service that is ac- tually worth about thre. The usual tip in restaurants is about ten per cent. But the bootblack gets fifty per cent. And this for putting something on your shoes that if persisted in almost invariably cracks then open at the end of six weeks “Ts there? Well, my family were vac- cinated about three years ago and we have had between us since then almost every known disease. Where's the good side to that?” “The virus maker got 200 per cent profit on the stuff and the med. got $5 for squirting the filth into you, besides realizing handsomely on the new diseases you now own. Nothing bad about that side of it.” N places of trust, women are said to be more honest than men.”" “Why?” - “Oh, they have no women to steal for.” HE charter member of the Ancient Order of Damphools is the man who writes all he knows in a diary and loses it A FAIR EXCHANGE “say, DOC! ’SCUSE ME FER BUTTIN’ IN, BUT I'VE GOT A STRAIGHT TIP ON THE PONIES I'D LIKE TO SWAP FER A SURE CURE FER RHEUMATISM ’? comicbooks.com