Life, 1909-11-11 · page 18 of 36
Life — November 11, 1909 — page 18: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This satirical page mocks the potential impact of World War I on American trade and industry. The central cartoon depicts exotic zebras and fantastical creatures pulling carts—a visual metaphor suggesting that if war closes English horse markets, Americans would resort to absurd alternatives for transportation and commerce. The upper vignette shows a woman with a horse, referencing a "safety shirt" advertisement—likely satirizing wartime safety concerns or commercial opportunism during the conflict. The title "Equus Morityns" (dead horse) reinforces the joke: American businesses dependent on English horse imports would face obsolescence. The cartoon criticizes both American reliance on foreign trade and wartime market disruptions, using grotesque imagery to exaggerate economic anxiety. The tone is lighthearted mockery of commercial panic during the war period.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
LON FORGET 70 BUYTON. YOUR SAFETY SHIRT — THERE’S A REASON Soph — fino! lie NOVEL APPEARANCE OF SOME AMERICAN SXHIBITS [LF THE ENGLISH HORSE HARNETS SHOULD BE CLOSED BY WAR OBSOLETE Equus Morityns comicbooks.com