Life — September 14, 1911 — page 9: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# Analysis This page contains two pieces about Brooklyn and automobiles from *Life* magazine. The top article "Auto Muckraking" satirizes a magazine article criticizing the automobile industry as dishonest. The author defends automobiles while mocking Brooklyn as an "integral and homogenous section of New York" that should adopt cars rather than relying on bridges, subways, and Coney Island transit. The bottom illustration depicts a courtroom scene titled "Lawyer for Defendant." A lawyer questions a complainant about a client who "disappeared in the darkness after knocking you down." The complainant admits he cannot say exactly what time this occurred because his client had taken his watch—a satirical jab at the vagueness of accident testimony and insurance claims in early automobile litigation. Both pieces mock early 20th-century anxieties about automobiles and legal liability.