Life, 1913-10-30 · page 7 of 40
Life — October 30, 1913 — page 7: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains two sections: **"Doing His Best"** (left): A father-son dialogue about providing for "rainy days." The boy suggests his father buy a twenty-five-dollar rain-coat and fifteen-dollar umbrella to prepare, turning a financial lecture into comic absurdity about consumer spending versus actual preparedness. **"Merely a Suggestion"** (right): Bingleton, apparently a garage keeper, faces a customer angry about gasoline rationing (suggesting WWI-era fuel restrictions). The Rural Garageur sarcastically suggests running the car on "hot-air" instead—satirizing bureaucratic complaints and suggesting people waste breath complaining rather than accepting wartime constraints. The illustration "It's Unlucky to Break a Mirror" shows a collision between a small car and large truck, playing on superstition about broken objects bringing misfortune.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
. D. nish- > but such eper iffed Doing His Best HE boy had just handed his father a sizable haber- dasher’s bill with the request that he pay it “You are an extravagant idiot!” roared the irate par- cnt. “Does it ever occur to vou to provide for a rainy day?" “Why yes, dad,” said the youngster. “Ii you'll read over that bill you'll find that one of the items is for a twenty-five-dollar rain-coat. and fifteen dollars of it is for umbrellas.” Merely a Suggestion “ HAT?” cried Bingleton. “No gasoline? What kind of a garage keeper do you call yourself, any how? You ought 10 be compelled by law to carry gasoline at all times, under penalty of losing your license. It’s 3 outrage—I'm blest if 1 sce how I'm going to get away from this hole, unless—" “Ye might run your car on some o this here hot-air ye're wastin’ on me,” suggested the Rural Garageur, strok- ing his chin-whisker reflectively AT'S UNLUCKY TO BREAK A MIRKOR