Life, 1912-03-28 · page 18 of 50
Life — March 28, 1912 — page 18: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page satirizes American anxiety and economic pessimism, likely from the early 1900s. The text proposes a mock organization for citizens experiencing fear—of economic collapse, natural resource depletion, and corruption ("graiters," or grafters). The cartoons illustrate the absurdity: a skeletal, trembling figure embodies existential dread; a cowardly man refuses to "strike out," claiming he has "further to fall"; a nervous suitor cannot ring his fiancée's doorbell; a frightened husband dreads entering his own home at dawn. The satire mocks both the widespread anxiety gripping America and the emotional paralysis it causes—people so consumed by worry about national conditions and personal embarrassments that they become physically incapable of action. By creating a bureaucratic "association" for trembling, Life ridicules both collective anxiety and organized responses to it, suggesting fear has become almost institutional.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
634 clench your hands in the railroad train, and press your lips together feariully at the thought of some awful thing that is coming, perhaps at the next moment? Our mutterers’ room is a great success, By joining the crowd there you can mutter to your- self on any subject without fear of interruption and without being guyed” hy anybody, Merely to be able to mut- ter and thus express your terror- stricken soul—without being caught at it by a total stranger—is a great relief. Our main hall will be devoted to the tremblers, where trembling will be practiced daily. A special tremblers’ corner for those who are shaking with fear over the awful condition of our country has already been formed. Do you fear for our prosperity? Are you aware that our natural resources are rapidly petering out? Do you know “CO ON, STRIKE OUT, DON'T BE SUCH A cowarp!” “co ON youRSELF! 1 WOULD IF 1 DIDN'T HAVE ANY FURTHER TO FALL HER FATHER that the whole country is in charge of a set of graiters? Are you realizing to its fullest extent our awful condi- tion? If so, come and tremble with the rest of the tremblers, Remember, that the American Trem- blers’ Association is for the benefit of the whole American people. If you are in love with a sweet, simple, ethereal, winsome, innocent and strangely beautiful girl who doesn’t weigh more than eighty pounds, and want to propose to her, and find yourself trembling and shud- dering and quaking and muttering and utterly unable to ring the door bell on the night of the appointment, then you should join our association at once. If you are already married, and at the end of ten years or so stand out in front of the door about two o'clock in the morning while your wife is ting for you inside at the head of the stairs, and you are afraid to enter, then there is every reason why you should immediately become a per- manent member of this association. We intend to set apart a National Fear Day in order that the American people may express their fears prop- erly upon every subject. Shakers, tremblers. mutterers, shud- derers, sickly sycophants, terrorized business men, and, in fact, all who are “Do you sec things?” haunted inwardly while outwardly pre- serving the appearance of calmness, should join us at once. Smile and the world smiles with you. Be scared to death and become a member of our association. eis comicbooks.com