Life, 1910-07-14 · page 19 of 40
Life — July 14, 1910 — page 19: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page from *Life* magazine contains two distinct elements: **Top cartoon:** A satirical "suggestion to street car companies" depicting crowded subway conditions. The notice proposes bundling passengers like cargo—five passengers per bundle at discounted rates—to solve overcrowding. This is visual satire mocking both inadequate public transit infrastructure and the dehumanizing treatment of commuters packed into dangerous conditions during what appears to be early 20th-century urban transit crises. **Bottom section:** A series of humorous legal and social definitions. The "Legalities" section satirizes the legal profession by defining various figures (legislators, executives, judges, lawyers, laymen, criminals) in ways that mock their actual utility and ethics. The "Alimony" section uses bitter humor about divorce payments, suggesting alimony is tribute extracted from men, and cynically questioning whether women will ever pay for their own mistakes—reflecting period misogyny about marriage and divorce. The overall tone is cynical social commentary on urban conditions, legal absurdity, and gender relations.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Zz cn v HE x OPEN, SUBWAY 15 now A SUGGESTION TO STREET CAR COMPANIES IT CAN'T BE WORSE THAN 17 18, AND Legalities LEGISLATOR is the only man who can tell whether or not a law ought to be passed. An executive is the only man who can tell whether or not it ought to be en- forced. A judge is the only man who can tell whether or not it has been violated A lawyer is the only man who can tell how it may be violated with impunity. A layman is one who cannot possibly icnowaniything:aboutsa aw’ without see ing a lawyer. THE ABOVE SCHEME, THE RIGHT STATION A criminal is one who would rather take chances than see a lawyer. Alimony LIMONY is the tribute paid to mod ern society by its devotees is the “rake eff on a certain form of gambling demanded by one of the vic- tims. To most of the shows gotten up by pro- fessionals we pay the entering; but in the marriage show we pay the price afterwards. this is in the form of alimony admission before Oftentimes RESIDES OTHER ADVANTAGES, MAY INSURE PUTTING YOU OFF AT Alimony covers a multitude of scraps. The longer it is paid the harder it is to pay it To find out how much a man is worth take a point half way between what he tells his friends he is getting and what he tells Divide this by one- third and this is about the amount of his © court mony n woman reigns will she pay ali- y for her mistakes? Let us hope so P is a poor trust that doesn't work both ends. comicbooks.com