Life — August 14, 1913 — page 28: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This Life magazine page contains three satirical pieces: **"The Colossus at Panama"** depicts Uncle Sam straddling the Panama Canal—a reference to America's construction and control of this strategic waterway, presenting U.S. imperial ambition as monumental power. **"High Finance"** jokes about economic class through a boy buying cheap cigars instead of his father's expensive ones, satirizing working-class versus wealthy consumption habits. **"An Affair of States"** is a clever wordplay poem using U.S. state abbreviations as puns (Miss, Del, Mass, Ore, Minn, Kan, Ill, Tenn, Md, R.I., Pa, Conn, Wis) to tell a romance story—a young woman falls, a man rescues her, and they marry. It's light satirical humor playing with geography and language rather than substantive political critique. The page reflects early-20th-century American life, imperial confidence, and genteel magazine humor targeting educated readers familiar with state names and classical references.