Life, 1910-02-17 · page 17 of 44
Life — February 17, 1910 — page 17: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a humorous satirical piece by William Wallace Whitelock about post-WWI inflation. The cartoons illustrate the absurdity described in the text. **The Joke:** Rather than receiving money for publishing his novel, the author proposes being paid entirely in food and goods—steak for 5 copies sold, chicken for 10, turkey for 15, and eventually clothing for larger sales. His wife fares worse ("the outlook for my wife is bad") because female articles are valued at double cost. **The Context:** This reflects genuine economic anxiety from severe price inflation affecting meat, sugar, bread, and butter—luxuries becoming unaffordable. By proposing barter instead of currency, Whitelock satirizes how worthless money has become and how impractical modern commerce feels. The escalating absurdity (eventually demanding "marmalade" as payment) mocks both the inflation crisis and desperate attempts to cope with it. **The Cartoons:** Show contrasting animal abundance (top) versus humans scrambling for resources (bottom), visualizing the ironic "What's the Difference?"—perhaps suggesting animals live better than struggling people.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
A Solution for High Prices N view of the unceasing upward trend of the “Juxuries'? of life—such as meat, sugar, bread and butter—the con- tract which I have just made for the publication of my new novel can hardly fail to interest the readers of Lire. On publication, the firm in question agree to send me a barrel of potatoes, 103 pounds of the best flour, 50 pounds of cut and granulated sugar, respectively, 10 pounds of coffee and a box of sar- dines, Thereafter I am to receive for every five copies sold a porterhouse steak or a s-pound leg of mutton, as desired; for ten copies I may elect a chicken (not to weigh over 6 pounds), and for fifteen copies a turkey—weight limited to 7 pounds. For twenty copies Ir (cuffs attached) and for thirty a pair of shocs. A ready- made suit requires the sale of one hun- dred copies, while a suit to measure— but why indulge in impossible dreams? Other luxuries are provided for on a like scale—female articles being reck- oned double, so that the outlook for my wife is bad. The advantage of this arrangement is obvious—no matter to what point prices rise, I am provided for. Five copies give me a steak, even if it costs a dol- lar a pound. As book may con- tinue to sell for several years I can face the future with tranquil- ity. I may add that any editor wishing poems, stories or articles may write to me, care of Lire, stating how many lumps of sugar, beans of coffce, etc., he can pay per word, line or page, as the case may be. Just at present I am short of marmalade. Willian Wallacs Whitelock. comparative comicbooks.com