Life, 1913-12-04 · page 40 of 112
Life — December 4, 1913 — page 40: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page combines a humorous essay on snow with a satirical comic strip and photograph. The **essay** is characteristic early-20th-century Life satire: it begins with pseudo-scientific definitions of snow, then pivots to ironic social commentary. It mocks New York City's inefficient street cleaning (the department supposedly abandons the city for Palm Beach in winter) and ends with relatable domestic frustration—the disappointment of finding four feet of snow on a frozen lake meant for skating. The **photograph and dialogue** below depict a nervous woman reassuring her anxious male companion. Her comment—"I wish father wore bells"—is a dark joke: she's concerned about her father's movements, implying he poses some threat or behaves unpredictably, hence the wish that he'd wear bells (like livestock or lepers) to announce his presence. This suggests domestic anxiety or family tension, presented as comedic. The **comic strip** (right) shows dogs sledding and playing in snow—straightforward animal humor typical of the era.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
ROR LIFE KRM A Bad Five Minutes Snow NOW comes in storms and lies on the tops of mountains, icebergs and sky-scrapers. It is used in cities to hide germs and cover champagne bottles. It varies in color according to the location. Snow also comes in blankets, crystals and drifts; also in New York snow always comes when the Street Cleaning Department has gone to Palm Beach for the winter. Balls of snow are sometimes felt on the face and other parts of the body, as one passes a merry and innocent group of school-boys on their way to their virtuous studies. Melting snow is used to convey colds, and for this pur- pose is highly esteemed by medical men. In some land- scapes snow is used to fall upon sheep. When you have bought a brand new pair of skates and the lake you have been waiting for freezes over, it is a pleasant and beautiful thing to wake up the morning you have planned for your first skating party and find the snow on the lake about four feet deep. “WHAT'S THE MATTER, DEARESf? YOU SEEM NERVOUS.” “I AM—I DO WISH FATHER WORE BELLS!”