Life, 1912-05-09 · page 27 of 48
Life — May 9, 1912 — page 27: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page mocks wealthy American elites and contemporary political anxieties: **"Good News"**: Satirizes New York's high society, where the Bradley Martin family's return to America in May is treated as a stabilizing force comparable to "a kind of bulwark" against disaster. The satire suggests the wealthy believe their mere presence sustains the nation during critical periods—absurdly overestimating their importance. **"A Complete Course"**: A joke about a child learning profanity from multiple sources (his father shaving, uncle's golf, grandfather's car troubles, and the parrot)—satirizing modern frustrations. **"Confusion and Anarchy"**: Responds to railroad magnate James J. Hill's warning that government price regulation would cause societal collapse. Life sardonically agrees the real problem isn't anarchy but "confusion"—implying the government is already chaotic, so Hill's apocalyptic prediction rings hollow. The cannibals' joke plays on similar satirical themes about consumption and propriety.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Good News Mr. and Mrs. Bradley Martin, who have not been in merica for seven years, will spend May with Frederick wnsend Martin in New York.—Cable Dispatch from JCOR several years our Mays have not been what I they should be. Reginald Vanderbilt, it is c, has sometimes been with us in May, and has iped. Generally speaking, Frederick Townsend jartin, Mrs. O. H. P. Belmont, Mrs. Stuy- sant Fish and Mrs. Townsend Burden have ¢ what they could to be here in May, and re has been a sort of tacit arrangement they should not all leave the ° utry during this critical period, so t usually a few have stood—if we y say so-as a kind of bulwark in vay of supreme disaster. We assume that-they will all now cl perfectly free to go abroad in in view of the fact that the Brad- Martins are coming. It may be, leed, that the whole matter has been ranged: however this may be, the act that the Bradley Martins will be cre during May places matters on an ntirely different basis. Roosevelt may vw say what he pleases. The weather n do as it likes. The cost of living y continue to rise with impunity What care we so long as May is thus cinforced and spiritualized ? Yet we are big and broad enough at the same © to feel a note of pity for London, which vill he without them during this—one of the most neces ry months of the year—in the British capital A Complete Course (OND MOTHER: Willie, where did you learn to swear like that? Younc Horerut: Pa’s shaving, uncle's golf, grandpa’s uto, and your parrot seca First Cannibal: pon’T YoU THINK THAT LAST GEN- TLEMAN HAD EXCELLENT TASTE IN CLOTHES? Second Cannibal: 1 CAN'T SAY. 1 DIDN'T EAT THE CLOTHES. “A FROG HE WOULD A-WOOING CO” Confusion and Anarchy I we run upon the rocks in the near future, it will not be the fault of Mr. James J. Hill. This warning of his has been issued in plenty of time for us to steer a proper course: “Tf this Government ever undertakes to regulate prices, as has been proposed, the present form of government will pass out of existence. It will be succeeded for a time by confusion and then anarchy Our course is clear. We should not undertake to regu- late prices. It isn’t the anarchy that worries us. We could weather that easily. It is the confusion we should heware of. If we had any more confusion in our governmental affairs than we have at present, it would be fatal. “ OW long did it take you to do Rome?” “ About twice as long as it took Rome to do us.” comicbooks.com