Life, 1912-11-07 · page 21 of 60
Life — November 7, 1912 — page 21: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page satirizes **mandatory vaccination policies** in the U.S. Navy and public health programs circa the early 1900s. The top illustration ("A Thousand Years") depicts a desolate landscape with figures hunched over rocks—likely representing suffering or ruin from compulsory vaccination enforcement. The main article, "Consolation for Mutineers," recounts a tragic true story: a 9-year-old girl named Lucille in Buffalo died from blood poisoning after forced vaccination at school despite her mother's objection. The piece sarcastically frames this as "consolation" for sailors imprisoned for refusing mandatory inoculation, implying the Navy's punishment is unjustly severe. The bottom item, "Showing Progress," is an unrelated joke about a young man claiming ignorance of dance "steps" while knowing the physical "holds"—a double entendre suggesting sexual rather than dancing knowledge. Together, the page critiques aggressive public health mandates as tyrannical and dangerous, reflecting early anti-vaccination sentiment in American satirical journalism.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
LIFE: 2141 a8 Bees fy MP ch =_— _ Ag ae yee Sf: A THOUSAND YEARS Consolation for Mutineers HE next time a sailor in Uncle Sam's Navy is sentenced to a year’s imprisonment for refusing vac- cination, it might cheer him up to hear this sunny little anecdote, in the Open Door, of a school girl in Buffalo, When two public vaccinators and two policemen visited her school to inoculate the pupils with virus at $t each, nine-year-oll Lucille objected, saying she had been vaccinated, and if it must be done again she would go home to have it done. But she was threatened and force was used. Thir- teen days later, and after ten days of suffering from blood poisoning, she died. Her mother lost her reason and was put in an asylum. Showing Progress INISTER: Young man, do you know how to dance? Younc Man: Well, parson, I know the holds, but I don’t know the steps. “OH, JOHN! HOW SWEET OF YOU TO BRING ME THAT LOVELY HAT-PIN” comicbooks.com