Life, 1910-01-06 · page 29 of 76
Life — January 6, 1910 — page 29: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page satirizes early automobile culture and its social impact. The top silhouette strip titled "More Speed, Less Haste" depicts various pedestrians—men, women, and children—endangered by reckless driving, illustrating the public safety crisis created by fast automobiles. The cartoon "Here Endeth the First Lesson" shows a violent car crash with multiple vehicles destroyed, mocking wealthy drivers' careless attitudes toward expensive machinery and human life. The "Auto Glossary" mockingly defines automobile-related terms: chauffeurs as "goggled grimy spectre[s]" indifferent to life; cars as destructive "Juggernaut[s]"; and horns as noise pollution. The definitions satirize wealthy car owners' arrogance and recklessness. The brief dialogue at bottom jokes about women's suffrage ("the fight woman is making for the ballot"), suggesting women should use emotional manipulation rather than rational argument—typical era sexism. Overall, the page criticizes automobile mania among the wealthy and the dangers this poses to the public.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
29 Se MORE SPEED, LESS HASTE An Auto Glossary for Motor Maniacs A UTOMOBILE—A gasoline gadabout, junketing Juggernaut and prodigal pleasure-craft patronized by opulent optimists, exercised by frenzied fatalists and vilified by the pedestrian public. Gasoline Motor—A multi-cylindered inferno for converting canned horse-power into uncanny locomotion. Horn.—A popular advertising medium for public mental tension and contracting the mortality attention, distractins rate Chauffeur—aA goggled grimy spectre who gallivants through the scenery without regard for life, liberty or the pursuit of happiness. P Taxicab.—A horseless hack licensed to practice highway rob- bery for nimbly negotiating the longest distance between two points Garage.—An auto hostelry and infirmary where car masseurs and mechanical internes operate on the credulity of chauffeurs, diagnose their practical instincts and remove the swellings from inflated fortunes Speed-Monia.—An irresi atmosphere without disarranging the mural decoratic ing the topography of the landscape Fine (theoretically).—Casualty insurance, collected from am bitious motorists as a protectir Fine (practically).—Petty graft exacted by Courts of Injustice to compel innocent chauffeurs to “set Joy Ride.—An unch itinerary and frequent with tout ¢ Demonstra’ impulse to sever the adjacent ns or alter- stimulus to pedestrianism. »** for the crowd eroned Tour de Luxe with Bacch topover privileges, terminating informally ble finish—preferably jail, hospital or morgue. A free ride, with itinerant 1 ure on the demerits of rival cars, indulged in by investing investigators, in- veigling imposters and the mortgaged multitude Puncture—An_ explosive signal of distress often heard on highways, forecasting a local disturbance accompanied by a vio: lent outburst of vocabulary H. T. Moore. Most of our millionaires began at the bottom and worked up. Their sons begin at the top and work down.» NN ponte esi emmnanen (>) EADETH THE FIRJT LEV/ON Usually Effective RAWFORD: What do you think of the fight wor for the ballot? Cransuaw: She would probably succeed better if she went back to first principles and began to cry for it an is making comicbooks.com