Life — October 21, 1909 — page 7: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# "The Pilgrim's Progress Then and Now" This two-panel cartoon compares past and present versions of "success" or ambition. The left panel shows a figure in formal 18th-century dress, apparently confident and established. The right panel depicts a modern (early 20th-century) businessman in a suit, similarly posed but now juggling multiple burdens—a crying baby, a woman, and other obligations—while still maintaining his top hat and cane. The satire critiques how "progress" has complicated rather than simplified life. While both figures aspire to respectability and status, the modern man carries far more domestic and social pressures. The cartoon suggests that advancement brings not freedom but accumulated responsibilities, mocking the era's notion that contemporary life represented genuine improvement.