Life, 1912-02-01 · page 15 of 48
Life — February 1, 1912 — page 15: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page documents *Life* magazine's contest to caption a picture (visible above the text). The winning caption—"Where'er you go, / The thing you are / Will follow after you"—was submitted by Clare D. Robeson of New Jersey. The image shows a fashionably dressed woman standing alone in a desert landscape with sparse vegetation. The contest received nearly 20,000 entries; judges narrowed these to 14 finalists, then selected three top choices. The fourteen alternative titles reveal the intended joke: they play on the contrast between the woman's refined, urban sophistication and the harsh desert setting. Titles reference Luther Burbank's desert agricultural experiments, reclamation projects, and the cultural observation that city refinement cannot be shed—even in desolate wilderness. The satire gently mocks both the woman's pretension and early-20th-century assumptions about gender, civilization, and nature.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
HE winning title to the contest picture reproduced on this page was sent in by , CLARE D. ROBESON, 142 Curr STREET, Somervitte, N. J. This picture was first published in Lire’s Auto Number, and the contest closed at noon on Saturday, January 20. There were in all 19,248 answers re- ceived. From all of the answers, 82 were selected among the probabilities. Each of the four judges took a separate list of these 82 titles and independently selected five which in his or her judg- ment were the best. This resulted in fourteen titles. Then each judge made from this list a final selection of three THE WINNING TITLE Where’er you go, The thing you are Will follow after you. titles, placing them in the order of merit. It was then discovered that the title printed above was the one that appeared most frequently. The Fourteen Titles Finally Con- sidered by the Judges Were as Follows: Hey, diddle, diddle, The CAT is the riddle— The MISS wants a desert spoon. An Oasis—Without Dates. You can get the girl out of the city, But you cannot get the city out of the girl. Three things to be handled with gloves and care; Kittens, cactus and a maiden fair. Desert, cat and woman; Centuries have they known you, O man; them you know not. Wanted, at once on a desolate plain, A genteel outlaw to hold up a train. Though we brighten Lire’s desert with Cheshire grins, Remember, we're sisters under our skins. “A lady should always appear per- fectly at ease, anywhere, under any circumstances.” + Burbank’s latest grafting feat; Util- izing the deserts for growing Ameri- can Beauties and pussy-willows, How to Boom the Bad Lands! Nor Burbank nor the Reclamation Service, Could for mere man improve the view before us. Waiting. A desert, a cat and a cactus tree, Gladly exchanged for a handsome he. (Concluded on page 270)