Life, 1910-03-31 · page 16 of 46
Life — March 31, 1910 — page 16: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This satirical piece critiques the inefficiency and profiteering in the food supply chain. An egg passes through numerous middlemen—farmer, railroad, express company, wholesaler, jobber, and grocer—each taking a cut. The farmer receives only 20 cents per dozen for laying hens; the grocer sells for 60 cents. Yet the final consumer gets ptomaine poisoning, suggesting the egg spoils through excessive handling and cold storage delays. The joke's bitter irony: despite traversing this elaborate, costly distribution network, the product arrives contaminated. Multiple illustrated characters represent each link in the chain, emphasizing how many hands touch the egg before consumption. This likely reflects early-20th-century concerns about food safety, refrigeration technology's unintended consequences, and the growing disconnect between agricultural producers and urban consumers in industrial America.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
“LIP E* From Producer to Consumer An Up-to-date Tragedy I'm the Jobber who Passed 3 Along the Egg I'm the Farmer who Owned From the Wholesaler who Cold-Storaged the Egg The Hen that Laid the Egg. I got Twenty Cents a Dozen. After the Railroad Carried ate the Man a |B who Took the the Egg For the Express Company Egg to the Station that Shipped the Egg For the Farmer who From the Man who Took the Egg to the Station Owned the Hen that Laid the Egg. I got Two Cents a Dozen. I am the Egg. I was Laid. I'm the Hen that Laid the Egg. I got a Place to Roost and Part of my Board. For the Farmer who Owned The Hen that Laid the Egg. I sold the Eggs for Forty-eight Cents a Dozen. I'm the Grocer who Sold the Egg I got from the Jobber who Passed Along the Egg From the Wholesaler who Cold-Storaged the Egg <=, After the Rail- road Carried the Egg For the Express Company that + Shipped the Egg From the Man who Took the Egg to the Station For the Farmer who Owned I'm_ the Express that Shipped the Egg From the Man who Took the Egg to the Station For the Farmer who Owned the Hen that Laid the Egg. I got Six Cents a Dozen. Company COMPANY! I'm the Railroad Carried the Egg For the Express Company that Shipped the Egg From the Man who Took the Egg to the Station For the Farmer who Owned The Hen that Laid the Egg. I got Four Cents a Dozen. that The Hen that Laid the Egg. I sold the Eggs for Sixty Cents a Dozen. I’m the Poor Devil who Ate the Egg COLD STORAGE EGGS arWHOLESALE I'm _ the Wholesaler who Cold-Storaged the Egg After the Railroad Car- ried the Egg For the Express Company that Shipped the Egg From the Man who Took the Egg to the Station For the Farmer who Owned The Hen that Laid the Egg. I sold the Eggs for Forty Cents a Dozen. My Wife Bought from the Grocer who Sold the Egg He got from the Jobber who Passed Along the Eg; From Egg After the Railroad Carried the Egg For the Express Company that Shipped the Egg From the Man who Took the Egg to the Station For the Farmer who Owned The Hen that Laid the Egg. I got Ptomaine Poisoning. the Wholesaler who Cold-Storaged the comicbooks.com