Life, 1911-11-16 · page 9 of 44
Life — November 16, 1911 — page 9: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page satirizes Chicago's reputation and prominent citizens. The top section attacks the city's crude image with a poem by Franklin P. Adams. "A Cow Bird" illustration mocks Chicago's rough character. The main cartoon, "How About Your Boys, Mr. Crane?" targets **Mr. Crane, a Chicago millionaire** and college antagonist whose sons attended Yale. The satire suggests Crane should have kept his boys in Chicago instead, implying the city's wealth could produce "elevator boys"—a dig at the family's perceived pretension versus practical achievement. The bottom cartoon, "Safe," is a brief joke about bachelorhood, unrelated to Chicago themes. The "Little Piggies" comic strip shows a narrative about pigs going to Chicago, reinforcing the city's animal/crude associations popular in period satire.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Chicago, Ill. HICAGO ill deserves the name That journalistic jesters aim To give it as a rural, rough Uncivil, undelightful, tough Community of Sin and Shame. Yet do the wheeze-concocters frame Decrepit japeries and lame. Meseems that they have guyed enough Chicago, IIL O motley brethren who de Chicago, cease the petty ga At ye and your senescent stuff I write this rondeau in rebuff! Its truth and beauty who'll proclaim? Chicago will. Franklin P, Adoms How About Your Boys, Mr. Crane > HE Mr. Crane of Chicago, millionaire elevator man, whose specialty is antagonism to the colleges, is still maintaining his latest attack on them. But they say he has several sons, and they all went to Yale. What's the matter, Mr. Crane? Haven't the boys trial to self-respect than he found it, done well? Or is it and the whole profession more repel- merely that you think lant to aspirants who regard the feel- they would have done ings of their fellow creatures. But better if you had kept very likely what newspapers lost them in Chicago and through him in decency they gained in i) made elevator boys of efficiency. A paper absolutely disre- them? spectful of persons has at times great Fro, mansara ty ieee cree anne hescracee ae Aa value. Mr. Pulitzer seemed as insen- sitive and regardless as an earthquake, 5 ap and when a large, formidable and rot- gp Nyy ten edifice of respectability, or of dis- repute, has needed shaking down, the Ries eoemeriests THis TTL Moose World has sometimes reflected his qualities greatly to the public advan- tage. Such men as he keep civilization from crystalizing. They are trying, TMS LTE PEGE WENT TO OncAco! and in some ways expensive, but they are apt to be worth what they get and what they cost. The dry rot of re- spectability and the ascendancy of en- trenched privilege are much more dan- gerous than they are. The more snakes and bigger the more indispensable is the mongoose. A Cow BIRD Safe LUBDUB: Why have you never married, Singleton? Sincteton: Well, the women have always regarded me as an unfortunate fellow who wasn’t bad enough to need reforming or good enough to make a “NOW, CHILDREN, WHERE DO THE BAD LITTLE PicGIEs Go?” desirable husband. “PLEASE, MA'AM, TO CHICAGO.” comicbooks.com