Life, 1910-08-18 · page 11 of 36
Life — August 18, 1910 — page 11: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
**"Checks" Section:** This is political satire about government oversight systems. The text lists various checks on power: legislators checked by lobbies, people by representatives, lawyers by technicalities, savings by trusts, and so on. The accompanying whaling cartoon shows a whale being hunted—likely representing how despite these theoretical "checks," ordinary citizens remain vulnerable to exploitation. **"And Now, Bugs" Section:** The article compares mankind's historical struggle against animals to modern battles against insects and pests. It sarcastically praises human ingenuity in fighting "phyloxera, the tsetse-fly, the elm beetle" and other creatures, arguing that this represents remarkable human activity and versatility. The lighthouse illustration and "club sail" cartoon appear to represent human engineering triumphs against nature. The overall message: humans boast of progress while remaining caught in endless struggles.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
WHALING Checks NE of the chief concerns of the designers of our Govern- ment was to provide plenty of checks, passive, active d reactive, so that everybody and everything would be duly effectually checked by everybody and everything else. y builded better than they knew. Our legislatures are checked by lobbies. Our people are checked by representatives. Our lawyers are checked by technicalities. Our savings are checked by the trusts. Our expenditures are checked by our incomes. Our incomes are checked by employers. Our husbands are checked by our wives. And Now, Bugs Loxs ago man beat the great carnivorous animals in the competition for the possession of this earth, Since his- ry began, and before that, his labor has been to repel the aggressions of other men who have tried in war or trade to ket his share of the earth away from him, That effort goes on pretty steadily, and an end to the need of it is not yet in But nowadays besides putting up the old-time compe- tition with the other men, man is kept pretty busy fighting “LIGHT MOUSE-KEEPING bugs. It takes a great deal smarter man to fight the phy!- loxera, the tsetse-fly, the elm beetle, the tussock-moth, the gypsy-moth, the other moths, the San José scale, the boll- weevil, the mosquito and the house-fly than it did to stand off cave-bears and megatheriums. Our great warriors nowadays are not waving swords on horseback at the head of bands of fighting men. They are sitting at tables studying through a strong microscope the habits of an insect or a microbe Also rats. The rat-fight is pretty lively nowadays, being best conducted when the rat complicates himself with the bubonic plague. It is to admire the activity of man and his versatility He does more or less disfigure this footstool with construc- tions and advertisements, but what an extraordinary, left-over, A CLUB SAIL abandoned-farm planet it would become if he struck work! comicbooks.com