Life, 1912-12-19 · page 23 of 40
Life — December 19, 1912 — page 23: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
## The Main Illustration The cartoon depicts a large airship (dirigible/zeppelin) hovering above a small cityscape, captioned "IF NOAH HAD POSTPONED HIS LITTLE TRIP." This is a sardonic reference to the Biblical flood—suggesting that if Noah had delayed his ark, modern civilization (represented by the city below) would be destroyed by the airship instead. The satire mocks either early aviation technology as a threat, or possibly the destructive potential of airships as weapons (relevant given WWI-era anxieties). ## The Articles The page includes three brief opinion pieces: 1. **A literary critique** by J.B. Kerfoot about melodramatic plotting in fiction 2. **"Hail San Francisco"** — a dark satirical article mocking San Francisco's high suicide rate (52 per 100,000 annually), noting it's the highest among American cities despite promotional literature praising the region 3. **"Tips in Court"** — reporting an Iowa Supreme Court decision allowing hotel employees to keep tips, contrasting this with exploitative New York hotel practices The overall tone is satirical commentary on contemporary American life and concerns.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
XUM 2499 Prison and the scapegrace editor, now champion of the new ideals, is on the verge of a triumphant victory at the polls, he is covered with confusion, threatened with disgrace and forced to withdraw by the discovery that, without his having known it, the girl is his daughter by an early marriage; then, instantly, as though we had “taken the sun” after a week of fog, we know our exact and authentic loca- tion. We are lying, east by south one-half east, three degrees from the heart of Melodrama-land. J. B. Kerfoot. EYeY cat has its night. 1F NOAH HAD POSTPONED HIS LITTLE Hail San Francisco AN FRANCISCO has proved itself to be the most delightful Amer- ican city in which to commit suicide. San Francisco's rate per one hun- dred thousand of population is fif- ty-two annually. The next city on the list is San Diego. Indeed, of the ten cities having the highest rate, five are in California. The leader of the Eastern cities is Hobo- ken. This, however, is a little more easily understood. But why auto- euthanasia should be so popular on the Western coast is difficult to see when we read the glowing booklets from that region. TRIP Tips in Court has been decided by the Supremes Court of Iowa, that employees of hotels may lawfully retain the tips that are given to them. Concurrence with this decision will be welcomed by the public in New York. The prac- tise of New York hotels in compelling their employees to turn their tips over to the management is not popular with the contributors of the tips. It is very small business, of which the best that can be said is that it makes the whole tipping custom absurd NOnans exceeds like success. comicbooks.com