Life, 1911-07-06 · page 37 of 44
Life — July 6, 1911 — page 37: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page primarily features a **Budweiser advertisement** (center-right), which dominates the layout with an eagle logo and marketing copy about the beer being "The Old Reliable." To the left are two pieces of satirical content: 1. **"A Ditty of Surgery"** - A poem mocking doctors and surgical costs. The satire critiques physicians who charge exorbitant fees while patients bear all the risk ("we take all the chances"). The joke: doctors profit handsomely regardless of outcomes—their reputation actually *increases* when they raise prices, as if expense signals competence. 2. **A parallel comparison piece** (bottom) cleverly equates surgeons with tailors, suggesting both charge for their mistakes. The satire implies surgeons face no consequences for "blunders" (dead patients aren't returning complaints), while tailors at least must redo faulty work. The humor targets early-20th-century medical profession greed and the powerlessness of patients—a common *Life* magazine theme criticizing professional exploitation.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
BRIGHTEN UP Kee, oy platens te sear me WASHBURNES, Nl eam 75,000,000 hates erell, v old same fraid 7 Send 10¢ for samy potted tocllet ree. Liberal dacount to the trode. The O. K. Mfg. Co., Syracuse, N. Y., U.S. A. noi A Ditty of Surgery We feel a pain; the man of science ad vances And from his case takes out the tools he fancies And cuts us up—while we take all the chances. Then we get well (or don't!) all at our leisure, While Doctor Probe has taken down our measure And makes us pay his price, at his own pleasure His bill may be a simple little hundred gehts | This Kingly Bird Within the Letter /A\” We pay it! (Or our heirs, if be has Dlundered.) is the time honored trade mark of Anheuser-Busch. It’s the We pay it with some inward perturba- emblem of Quality and Purity. But Doctor Probe receives it with cla- tion @ lis added thus much to his reputation. For every time his price is boosted Ss higher Ee ee It adds unto his vogue like fuel to fire— “‘The Old Reliable’’ It stands alone at the top of the world’s bottled beers, because we use only the cream of each year’s crop of Barley and selected Saazer Hops. It is thoroughly aged in the largest storage cellars in the world. Its mild- ness and low percentage of alcohol makes it friends EVERYWHERE. Bottled only (with corks or crown caps) at the esa ‘ Anheuser-Busch Brewery er i St. Louis, Mo. and figures concerning matters 37 of interest to Homescek Tourists. THREE MON , Th ictim helps hi i And he tailor’ hi us every victim helps him to aspire. And yet the tailor's not so much in PTRIAL SUBSCRIPTION 7: Aspire to what? To systematic plun- clover. 25° CENTS der— ; When clothes don’t fit, he has to make A sanguinary graft exciting wonder, em over. ‘THE West: Coast Magazine 4 In which the patient pays for every But surgeons’ blunders only gravestones is the largest siandard{}} Mlunder. cover. magazine in the Southwest En the: only One ~Dollar- a - Yea The surgeon's eye must be quite clear— They run no risk; the dead are not re monthly on the Pacific Coast. { fitted! i Tt de?theracknewleds admitted ! turning ity on Western topics. Keeps He must know how to cut and be quick- To point them out to others less dis- You posted on s i oe opportunities. iiiabaa cerning. Los Angles, Ca. So must a tailor when his clothes are Meanwhile, we pay to see the scalpel fited. turning! comicbooks.com