Life, 1911-10-26 · page 19 of 50
Life — October 26, 1911 — page 19: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
The cartoon depicts a domestic scene: a man reclines in a chair while a woman reads to him, with the caption "HAS SUFFERED A RELAPSE AND MAY NOT NOW BE ABOUT UNTIL AFTER THE HOLIDAYS." The satire appears to mock male hypochondria or malingering—the man feigns illness to avoid responsibilities, using the excuse of needing rest through the holiday period. The woman's dutiful attendance suggests she's enabling his behavior by reading to him during his "recovery." The accompanying text discusses church authority, education, and public policy questions. The professor aphorism ("A GOOD college professor is one who can teach students to be not like himself") reflects turn-of-the-century American educational debate about conformity versus individualism. The "Public Questions" essay critiques how public discourse operates, using the tariff as an example of an enduring political issue. Overall, the page satirizes institutional authority, male behavior, and the mechanics of public debate in early 20th-century America.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
HAS SUFFERED A RELAPSE AND MAY NOT NOW BE ADOUT UNTIL AFTER THE HOLIDAYS influence opinion. If there is a form of power more likely to be abused and mishandled than another, it is authority entrusted to a church, But churches may shape character and influence conduct and public opinion, and they do both enormously in this country now. It is a good thing that Mr. Horne came here. He needed the change. If he finds himself getting too much change he might stop and pay his respects to Chancellor Day of Syracuse, an old-fashioned man like himself and a great believer in authority. But Mr. Horne says he is a radical and the chancellor is not a radical at all. Never mind! Perhaps Mr. Horne has not really found himself yet, and if not, the chancellor might help him to self-location. A GOOD college professor is one who can teach students to be not like himself. Public Questions HERE will be no public questions in Utopia. Public questions all come from the desire of private indi- viduals to get the advantage of the public. The post office, for instance, is not a public question. It is a public answer. There may be phases of the post office, however, such as the amount paid to railroads for transportation, which are public questions. The post of- fice itself would become a public question if our leading citizens should organize and declare that it was not clas- tic enough and should therefore be turned over to them. It is usually safe to answer public questions in the nega- tive. The longevity of a public question varies directly with the obfuscation of the public and its-inability to for- mulate an emphatic reply. The oldest living public ques- tion we have is the tariff. comicbooks.com