Life, 1911-02-02 · page 31 of 52
Life — February 2, 1911 — page 31: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
**Top Cartoon ("Completing the Circuit"):** Shows a man and woman in an intimate moment. The title suggests completing a romantic "circuit"—likely satirizing predictable courtship narratives of the era. **Book Review:** A scathing review of a novel by Walsh (priced $1.50) depicting a dystopian 1952 Chicago where the government forcibly relocates residents to communistic hotels following adoption of a socialist constitution. The reviewer criticizes the work as humorless, illogical, and populated by flat characters rather than believable people. This reflects early 20th-century anxieties about socialism and government overreach. **Bottom Illustration & Caption:** Depicts children and animals around a cracked nut, with caption "Hurry, children, and bring papa the nut cracker!" The humor appears to be domestic/family-oriented wordplay typical of Life's satirical style. **Suffragette Contest Notice:** Announces a closed contest with winner to be announced in March, suggesting Life's engagement with contemporary women's rights debates.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
COMPLETING THTE CIRCUIT (Holt, $1.50). Mr. Walsh has not only anticipated the sugges- tion, but has foozled his drive. The book contains an account of the adoption, at the fall clections of 1952, of an (unde scribed) socialistic constitution and of the immediate and for- cible transference of the population of Chicago from individual places of residence to communistic hotels. Incidentally it de- sc-thes some of the lamentable results of local option in the shops of tins Western Steel Company. But the major portion of the volume is devoted to the melodramatic exploitation of what is known as a “love interest”; and the whole suffers from the double drawback of being as free from humor as from logic and of being peopled by puppets instead of per- sonalities. J.B, Kerfoot. Life’s Suffragette Contest NOTICE TO CONTESTANTS: The contest closed on December 31, 1910, and the winner will be announced as soon as all the accepted contributions have been published, and the award made. We hope to announce the winner in the first issuc in March. Ample notice will be given MULRY, CHILDREN, AND BRING PAPA THE NUT CRACKER!”