Life, 1912-07-18 · page 11 of 44
Life — July 18, 1912 — page 11: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
The illustration depicts two young girls discovering an overturned stepladder near a picture molding, with dialogue suggesting their father fell while hanging a picture. This serves as a visual setup for the accompanying humor pieces below. "An Ode on Vaccination" celebrates doctors as "microbe-princes" fighting disease, portraying physicians as modest heroes who "live a life of warfare" against illness for humanity's benefit—reflecting early 20th-century admiration for medical advances. "The Bar" criticizes Chicago lawyers, appealing to New York attorneys to voluntarily help poor clients, suggesting the profession's reluctance to provide pro bono services. The piece implies some lawyers in Chicago are more philanthropic than their New York counterparts. Both pieces employ gentle satire about social institutions and professional conduct.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
“MUZ, DID YOU HEAR THE STEP-LADDER WHEN IT TUMBLED OVER?” 0, DAR! 1 HOPE “NOT YET; H An Ode on Vaccination AM a little microbe a-dwelling in vaccine, With many little comrades of figures fat and lean. We multiply and flourish, an aristocracy, Belovéd by the student of bacteriology. Our poor plebeian brothers are pitiful and small; They live a life of warfare and do no harm at all. We curse the human species from birth ‘till living ends, For we are microbe-princes—the doctors are our friends! PA DIDN'T FALL." S STILL HANGING ON TO THE PICTURE MOLDING.” The Bar A’ effort is being made in Chicago to establish a com- mittee of lawyers to protect the poor people from the “ shysters,” the idea being that young attorneys in good standing will give their services voluntarily to poor clients, and that the older members of the profession will send money. This would seem to indicate that there are some » benevolent lawyers in Chicago. Cannot some of them be persuaded to come on to New York and relieve the situa- tion here? comicbooks.com