Life, 1913-10-09 · page 15 of 44
Life — October 9, 1913 — page 15: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page from *Life* magazine satirizes two things: **Top section:** A mock "Noise Department" advertisement parodies modern commercial services and urban noise pollution. It humorously offers to rent out various sources of noise—from chatty conversationalists to schoolboys to thunderstorms—for those tired of their own household noises (phonographs, pianos, neighbors). The joke mocks both consumerism and the absurdity of 1910s city life's constant cacophony. **Bottom cartoon:** Shows a criminal with multiple aliases being asked to sign a women's suffrage petition. The satire suggests that opponents of women's voting rights were so eager to block suffrage that they'd accept signatures from anyone—even criminals using fake names. This mocks anti-suffrage resistance as desperate and unprincipled, implying their position was indefensible. Both pieces reflect early 20th-century American debates over women's rights and urbanization.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Tel Li fel NOISE PARTMENT OPEN NIGHT AND “WELL, BILL MCGINTY, ALIAS TOM JUDD, ALIAS JAKE HAN , ALIAS SOL You TIHooptat eran ~%4ng 1 E. FFE tional experts who can out-talk any- thing in the country—except our band. In case you are tired of listening to your phonograph, or your piano attach- ment, or your next-door neighbor, or your wife, call us up and we will send you a human-conversational-eighty- tongue-power engine, good for any grade, with a vocabulary that would bring the blush of shame to the cheek of the Hon. W. J. Bryan. Or, if you just want plain noise, we have on hand a trained band of school- boys who will call on you at any hour and make you feel like a champion baseball game. Svery description of noise furnished on application, from a girlish giggle to a trained thunderstorm. Why not add to the comforts of home? Yours for the noisiest noise, Lire’s Nose DerartMent. nae “From a girlish giggle to a trained LEWIS, JUST SIGN ALL YOUR ALIASES TO THIS PETITION FOR WO} thunderstorm 'M GLAD YOU CALLED. SUFFRAGE,” comicbooks.com