Life, 1910-12-22 · page 12 of 44
Life — December 22, 1910 — page 12: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains two distinct pieces: **"The Reduction Breakfast"** is a satirical poem by Kate Masterson mocking fad diets. The accompanying illustration shows children with halos, suggesting they're being reduced to angelic thinness through restrictive eating (thyroid drops, minimal carbohydrates, sparse meals). The satire targets the era's obsession with weight-loss schemes, presenting extreme dietary restriction as absurd and potentially dangerous—especially when applied to children. **"Yale Football Seats Disparaged"** discusses a Harvard critique of Yale's football stadium safety, calling the seating "fire traps." The article references a Dr. Wentworth's controversial medical experiments on infants, using this as dark comparison to Yale's supposedly dangerous facilities. **The bottom illustration** shows a man being ejected from a window by a porter, with the caption referencing "legs you've had enough!" This appears to be a separate humorous vignette about overindulgence or rowdy behavior.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
-LIFE: Yale Football Seats Disparaged HE only vigorous Harvard remarks on the late Harvard-Yale football game that have appeared in print were in a letter to the Boston Transcript to the effect that the seats in the Yale field “are nothing Jess than yawning fire-traps,” and that the Yale authori- ties take daring risks whenever they permit them to be filled, Harvard sentiment scems to be that the football en- tertainment provided in New Haven for visitors from Boston is not worth so big a risk as those fire-trap seats compel By His Own Confession September 30, 1910. 0 THE EDITOR OF LIFE: The New York Times recently questioned the accuracy of Lire’s statement that babies were used for ex- perimentation, 3 Wentworth published an arti the Boston Medi- cai and Surgical Journal, August, 1896, entitled “ Some Ex- perimental Work on Lumbar Puncture,” and as such he speaks of it throughout. He records the puncture of forty- f five children, but only gives the result of twenty-nine—five : ; years cf age and less—some of them punctured as many as EME WEEK RETORE: CHRISTMAS: four times, Of the twenty-nine children fourteen died— . ee . seme, onthe day of puncture. Dr. Wentworth describes is first experiment as follows: ‘Immediately following this (the puncture), the The Reduction Breakfast atient showed alarming symptoms. Her pulse rose to. two hundred and. fifty ASS me the table scales, mother, eats a minute: she clutched at her hair, tossed herself about the bed and ut- Lidsa i seeneaitprgil ives tered sharp cries.” The Philadelphia Polyclinic, a medical journal, says of these land me the thyroid drops. experiments: “Dr, Wentworth tapped experimentally the spinal canal of infants I've lost a pound since yesterday, whose symptoms presented no indications for such a surgical procedure. . . . So send away the chops. Those operations were purely and avowedly experimental. The account of the action ai of this men is enough to justify the prejudice against the hospitals among the poor Pour out the barley water, Jane, T could cite numerous other cases. s roe SM. Farnete- Gladly I greet the morn; Give tae three grains of corn, mother, Give me three grains of corn! We will add, just for cheerful reading, another paragraph from Dr. Wentworth’s report. Upon inquiry it was learned that the infant died on April 21. There was a history of convulsions during the last few days. My waist is sinking in, mother, My hips have fallen away; I've hollows where I once had curves, Serve me some shredded hay. This cowless milk is excellent— Non-nitrogenous, dry— Then move the muffins further off And push the pancakes by ! Feed me the carbo-hydrates, mother, With a wafer saccharin Give me the London biscuit tin They help to keep onc lean Tell Jane to take away the eggs, And the French fried things I scorn; Give me three grains of corn, mother, Only three grains of corn! I thought I'd passed away, mother, When I first began to hant; I did not like the fatless foods Or the fluidless rations scant. But I've shrunk like a sun-kissed lily stalk By the breezes over-borne— So rest my head on your shoulder. mother, Give me three grains of corn! Kate Masterson. “SEE "RE NOW YOU, MIC, PELLESI. 1 CAN TELL BY Y'R LEGS YOU'VE MAD ENUPF!"? Ccomicbooks.com