Life, 1913-07-17 · page 39 of 44
Life — July 17, 1913 — page 39: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains two distinct elements: **Left side:** A satirical essay titled "The Surgeon" mocking the medical profession. The piece employs heavy irony to critique surgeons as self-interested, portraying them as profit-driven professionals who conduct unnecessary operations, exploit poor patients at teaching clinics, and prioritize financial security over patient welfare. The dark humor suggests surgeons view medical practice as a path to wealth ("stock market and real estate") rather than genuine healing. References to keeping "the wolf from the door" and the blunt statement that "surgeons are necessary to hospitals, drug stores and cemeteries" underscore the cynical tone. **Right side:** A Pennsylvania Railroad advertisement promoting beach destinations and resorts in New Jersey, featuring an illustration of people on a sailboat. This is standard promotional material. The juxtaposition of cynical medical commentary with leisure advertising is characteristic of Life's satirical format, using contrast for effect. The surgeon piece reflects early 20th-century skepticism toward professionalism and commercialism in medicine.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
with The Surgeon SZ the surgeon. He is engaged in the advancement of science, the ultimate good of the human race; also in the stock market and real estate. The surgeon rises early in the morn- ing, and, getting out his grindstone, spends an hour@pleasantly in sharpen- ing his knives and saws, and the other musical instruments of his trade. Then he puts on his football jacket and rub- ber gloves and takes his daily stroll through the alimentary canal. The surgeon can be seen in hospitals surrounded by handsome _ trained nurses, who arrange the patient grace- fully on the operating table while the surgeon smokes his pure Havana, sus- tained and soothed by an unfaltering trust that, though the patient may not pull through, he himself will still be able to keep the wolf from the door. Surgeons perform only those opera- tions that are necessary to sustain life; for the surgeon realizes that he, as well as others, must live. Surgeons also conduct clinics. A clinic is a place where a diseased person who needs the money is hired by the hour to furnish amusement to medical gentlemen who hope some day to become surgeons—if they can get enough people to practice upon while they wait. No clinic is complete with- out a surgeon who neatly and elo- quently explains what ought to be done to anyone who needs to be operated upon, and who is still alive. Surgeons are necessary to hospitals, drug stores and cemeteries. Pevantry prides herself on being wrong by rules, while common-sense is contented to be right without them— C. C. Colton. ARE YOU GOING TO MOVE? If you are, or if you have done So recently, don’t forget to notify LIFE of your changed address, The Post-Office will not forward @ periodical as it will a letter. Therefore each week’s delay means a copy of LIFE lost. Don’t wait until you have moved before you notify us. When ordering a change give the old as well as the new address. Notice must reach us by Thurs- day to affect the tollowing week’s issue. Subse: wv wore oops ‘Street ‘New York New. Jersey Coast To the Famous “Forty” stretches of smppth sand and restless sea—the finest Bathing Beaches in the world. g, ae galore. The splen \ Wi fatijities and the excellent train service\of | the Pennsylvania System, bring th’ Ree] wonderful resorts within easy Teach of &{j parts of inland America. ~ 3 any Pennsylvania Railroad agent for time tables of convenient train ser- vice, and rates of fare. AN AVIATION MEET comicbooks.com