Life, 1912-12-05 · page 52 of 116
Life — December 5, 1912 — page 52: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page announces the winning entry in a *Life* magazine caption contest. The illustration depicts a formal church wedding ceremony, with a near-sighted clergyman holding his prayer book upside down or opened to the wrong page while performing the service. The winning caption, submitted by George A. McCarter, reads: "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do"—a biblical phrase (Christ's words from the Crucifixion) humorously repurposed to comment on the oblivious minister's blunder at a solemn moment. The text describes the contest mechanics: 8,369 entries were received; judges independently selected their top choices, and three of five judges ranked this title first, demonstrating its clear appeal. The joke's humor lies in the ironic application of sacred language to an everyday human mistake—the minister's absent-mindedness contrasted with the gravity of the wedding ceremony itself.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
2364 +1 & hes & LIFE a ach au The Winner in Life’s Contest THE WINNING TITLE [Near-sighted minister, opening prayer-book at wrong page:) “ Father, forgive them, for they know not what they de Te winning title to the contest picture reproduced on this page was sent in by GEORGE A. McCARTER, to Batu Street, Roxpur The picture was first published in Lire’s issue of October thirty-first, and again in the Thanksgiving Number, November seventh. The contest closed at noon on Mon- day, November eleventh. There were in all 8,369 answers re- ceived, over two thousand of them aving reached us on the closing day. From all of the answers, fifty were selected among the _ probabilities Each of the five judges took a sep- arate list of these fifty titles and in- dependently selected five which in his judgment were the best. This re- sulted in fifteen titles. Then cach judge made from this list a final se- lection of three titles, placing them in the order of merit. It was then dis- covered that three of the judges had the winning title first on their lists, one had it second, ‘while one did not have it at all. Several of the best titles were not considered by the judges, as they were duplicated hundreds of times. The comicbookMen q]