Life, 1909-08-19 · page 12 of 28
Life — August 19, 1909 — page 12: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This *Life* magazine page satirizes Kansas's incomplete prohibition laws. The main article mocks Kansas's alcohol ban as full of loopholes—it prohibits drinking on trains and in public, but apparently leaves other venues unregulated. The cartoon shows a thin, top-hatted figure (representing Kansas or its prohibition enforcement) pouring water, captioned "Little Drops of Water," a reference to a temperance hymn. The satire suggests Kansas's law is ineffectual—merely symbolic gestures rather than comprehensive prohibition. The article's author questions the law's logic: if Kansas truly wanted to prevent drinking, why not also ban alcohol in aeroplanes? The humor lies in exposing the contradiction between prohibition's strict intent and its selective, easily circumvented actual enforcement.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
*LIFE* Kansas Prohibition Still Incomplete cr is law in Kansas now that you must not take a drink in a railroad train. No exception seems to be made for cases of stomach ache, faintness or habitual intemperance. The law prohibits drinking intoxicating liquors on railroad trains in Kansas, provides that notice to that effect shall be posted in the cars, and authorizes conductors lo arrest any passenger who is found taking a drink, and turn him over to the police at the next station, What is the matter with Kansas, any- William Allen White has pub- ished a book and gone to Europe. Is that the trouble? There is very little drinking on rail- road trains here in the East, and what there is is very seldom prejudici to the peace. Is the lid on so tight in Kansas that topers buy railroad tickets to escape it? Curious § We don't believe its new law is con- stitutional, but if it is, it must be supplemented at once by another law prohibit- ing drinking in acroplancs. Otherwise we shall expect to ansas the greatest aeroplane mart in the world and wonderful flights of drinkers taking their six o'clock cocktail in the sky. ONE OCCASIONALLY GETS TIRED OF BE~ ING LIONizED. Notice response to numerous inquiries, we desire to state that the Husband Correspondence Bureau has no conne tion with any other establishment bear- ing a similar name. Owing to the un- precedented success of the Bureau, it was inevitable that rivals should spring up in various parts of the country. Human nature is about the same as it always was. Pioncers in the history of thought are always sure of arousing a host of imitators He Could Not Forget W have now been married fifteen years, Archibald, and I have never omitted to bake a cake for you on your birthday.”’ “That's truc, my dear, and every one of them was, so to speak, a milestone on “sure, IP IT’S DRAMIN’ 1 AM, I'LL NIVER TOUCH ANITHER DROP, BUT IF IT’S THE REAL $0: 58¢ the path of my life! TING, I'D LOIKE A BIG DRINK RIGHT Now! ”” comicbooks.com