Life, 1910-09-15 · page 12 of 40
Life — September 15, 1910 — page 12: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
The top cartoon mocks proposed X-ray machines for detecting smuggling at U.S. Customs. It shows officials about to scan a woman's luggage, with the implication that X-rays would reveal contraband—and potentially expose her body beneath clothing, creating an invasive privacy violation. The article below, "Men's Rights," argues sarcastically that men have lost authority and rights to women, particularly regarding marriage and property. It advocates for an "Equal Rights" society to restore male dominance. The bottom photograph's caption, "Stone Walls Do Not a Prison Make," likely references women's domestic confinement, contrasting the suffragette movement's calls for freedom with their actual restrictions. Together, the page satirizes early 20th-century tensions between technological progress, gender relations, and individual privacy.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
THE UNITED STATES CUSTOMS OFFICIALS ARE AMOUT TO INSTALL AN N Men's Rights CLEARER idea of what is meant by the expression “Men's Rights,”” can be obtained by thinking of its synonym, which is the praic term, “a minus quantity.” However, it was not always thus. Once men were the lords of cre- ation and were looked up to by the female sex—the term gentler sex is purposely avoided, as it is no longer applicable since the arrival of militant sulfragettes, Since the dawn of the “ new woman "" man’s rights have steadily diminished, until to-day about the only right he re- tains is the right to pay the bills. This right is never disputed, and its weight is made much greater by a high tariff Congress and a high price country. True, man still has the right to pro- pose, but that availeth very woman still disposes. Anyway s up her mind to marry a man, even against his will, he might as well come in and surrender his rights first_as last, for it is only a matter of time. By many persons, especially many men, the low estate into which men’s rights Nave fallen is not considered right, be- woman mal THE NEW METHOD SUGGESTS SMUGGLING ing regarded as contrary to that pro- vision of the Constitution which entitles even a mere man to liberty and the pur- suit of happiness. In order to rehabilitate the sex and re- store man to his God-given rights it might be well to form an Equal Rights MACHINE TO DE USED ON VERSONS WHOSE AUPEARANCE Society, or a Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Men. And if the suffragettes really yearn to relieve suffering and aid the op- pressed, this would give them a live is- sue, one on which they could enlist the support of all men everywhere. “STONE WALLS DO NOT A PRISON MAKE.’? comicbooks.com