Life, 1913-10-23 · page 9 of 40
Life — October 23, 1913 — page 9: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
**Top Cartoon ("The Timid Débutante"):** Contrasts 1860 and 1913 social behavior. The left panel shows a formal, modest interaction between a young woman and man. The right panel depicts the same scenario in 1913 with more relaxed propriety—the woman is seated casually while men gesture freely around her. This satirizes how rapidly social conventions changed in the early 20th century, particularly regarding women's freedom and comportment. **Bottom Section:** An essay titled "Copper" laments copper's loss of cultural prominence in American business and psychology. The accompanying cartoon ("Unknown Animal Wins First Heat") shows a chaotic racing scene, sarcastically commenting on how copper's absence from public discourse means it's now forgotten—even displaced by "unknown" concerns in national attention.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
“LIFE: ~~ 1913— — Offo Cushing — “THE TIMID DEBUTANTE” UYING friendship with money is a sure way to lose Copper both. OW about copper? What has happened to it? Who does not remember when it played a most indis- pensable part—in our industry, yes—but more especially in our psychology? How we used to worry about it as we wended our ways to our offices in the morning and how we grabbed the newspapers to read about its antics as we left our offices in the afternoon! How the furrows deep- ened in the brows of our brokers and our financiers as they eagerly watched the tickers for a few ticks of hope. Whether amalgamated or fissiparated, crystallized or amorphous, as copper went so went the fortunes of the entire nation. Tempora mutantur! How many things are now allowed to happen without copper’s being taken into the slightest consideration! If copper has any work to do, it is per- mitted to do it without being subjected to articles in the magazines or editorials in the newspapers. It is a fickle public! But still, if we were copper, we should hardly TRACK know whether to be joyful or aggrieved over this loss of “UNKNOWN ANIMAL WINS FIRST HEAT” prestige. comicbooks.com