Life, 1910-08-04 · page 31 of 44
Life — August 4, 1910 — page 31: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is **not a cartoon or satirical content**—it's a Western Union telegraph form reproduced in *Life* magazine as a **humorous document itself**. The telegram, dated 7-11-10, is sent from Youngstown to a Massachusetts manufacturing company (B.F. Sturtevant Co.) and requests urgent equipment delivery. The humor lies in the **absurdly technical specifications** for what appears to be a sick baby's needs: "Express C.O.D. one ventilating set size B...flexible discharge pipe...intense heat. Voltage one hundred, alternating current, sixty cycles." The joke is that someone is treating a baby's illness like an industrial engineering problem, requesting high-voltage electrical equipment specifications as medical treatment. It satirizes either **misguided attempts at modern "scientific" medicine** or the sender's complete incompetence in describing actual baby care—treating a sick infant as if it were factory machinery requiring technical specifications rather than simple comfort measures.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
THE WESTERN N UNION TELEGRAPH COMPANY. INCORPORATED 123,000, EE ICES I on AMERICA. | CABLE SERVICE TO eae THE WORLD. ty writing wilhia sia 1 lake fur errurg.or delay’ ty Gaye Sone | sext by a REC BY RECEIVED «at Dated__ Youngstown, C. BG To B. F. Sturtevant Co., Hyde Perk, Mass. nir into sick room, Please rush, Raby needs acco’ intense heat. Voltage one hundred, alternating current, _ nixty cyclcs. comicbooks.com