Life, 1913-03-27 · page 33 of 60
Life — March 27, 1913 — page 33: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
The top cartoon shows a woman startled in her chair while a man enters a room—the "false alarm" of the title. The joke concerns **social propriety and scandal**: the woman's shocked reaction suggests fear of compromising her reputation, though the man's casual entrance indicates there's nothing actually improper occurring. The accompanying essay satirizes **"orthodoxy"**—rigid adherence to conventional rules across medicine, art, fashion, religion, and agriculture. The author argues orthodoxy is stifling: doctors won't advertise though papers need revenue; businessmen must dress formally to appreciate art they dislike; love is hampered by economic constraints; clergy wives can't wear fashionable plumes; farming efficiency is blocked by traditional methods. The essay concludes that "Something Awful"—presumably disruption or scandal—is needed to shake loose these paralyzing conventions. The bottom panel appears to be a visual rebus puzzle for readers to solve in the next week's issue. This reflects early-20th-century progressive critique of Victorian social restrictions.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
“A FALSE ALARM” Something Awful ONSIDER orthodoxy, how mani- fold its aspects. Orthodoxy in medicine keeps doc- tors from advertising in newspapers when newspapers by the hundred are dying to he advertised in Orthodoxy in art, not only com- pels the tired business man to like what he dislikes, but often ex- pects him to do so in evening clothes. Orthodoxy in love puts fair ladies to no end of inconvenience to get themselves won by hearts which the cost of living renders day by day fainter. Ortho in religion has largely impaired the market for willow plumes among the wives of clergymen. Orthodoxy in farming gives rise to the Man with the Hoe and stands in the way of the International Harvester Company paying dividends beyond a beggarly fifty per cent. Hence the crying need of Something Awful. Something Awful jolts ortho- doxy ; causes it to loosen, so to speak, its lethal tentacles; gives it, in short, pause. Nothing, perhaps, is to be deemed more fortunate than the time- ly advent of Something Awful. wena Paey Jack AUCE THE ANSWER TO THIS REBUS WILL BE IN NEXT WEEK'S LIFE comicbooks.com