Life, 1913-12-11 · page 15 of 40
Life — December 11, 1913 — page 15: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page satirizes early 20th-century fashion and reform movements. The cartoon depicts a couple seated together, illustrating a social critique about **aigrettes**—feathered plumes worn as women's hat ornaments that were technically banned by new tariff laws, yet Custom House officers allowed their import anyway. The article mock-seriously proposes a male reformer (like the anti-smoking "Dr. Pease") armed with scissors to cut aigrettes from women's hats in public, comparing this to **Carrie Nation's** temperance activism. The satire's real target: the hypocrisy that women's fashion demands override law enforcement. The second article criticizes animal testing ("vivisection") in medical research, citing Dr. Simon Flexner's admission that serum-therapy has failed—arguing that animal suffering has been pointless. Both pieces use exaggerated proposal and moral outrage as satirical devices to expose inconsistency in contemporary law, commerce, and ethics.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
HAT the Custom House officers have been forced to look leniently upon ladies who arrive in this country wearing aigrettes in spite of the fact that the new tariff law forbids the im- portation of these ornaments—well, just what docs this mean? Does it mean that woman's rule is more su- preme than ever, or does it mean that the Custom House spirit has been broken by the latest developments? What we require in this crying emergency is a real reformer. Jf the energy of Dr. Pease in eliminating nicotine can be deflected into this new channel, what may he not accomplish? Yu ULI BEAUTY All that is needed is an active, ener- getic reformer with a large pair of scissors. He could leap from trolley to trolley and from limousine to limou- sine, and in the mere clip of a second could do his deadly work. Ought we not, at this critical stage in our progress, to have somebody on the male side who will act as a fitting complement to Mrs. Carrie Nation? Here is a chance for Dr. Pease. Meanwhile, let us -remember that every aigrette means a tragedy in the family of a bird. It means ruthless murder in order that some thoughtless woman may satisfy the demands of style. EFERRING to Dr. Simon Flex- ner’s recent confession The Open Door says: In other words, serum-therapy has broken down—its usclessness has been exposed and proved. What further need for the hideous suffer- ings of animals, whose tortured cries are heard far beyond the guilty walls of the medical research lab- oratory? Why can not vivisectors become human beings again and cease their remorseless campaign which, by the admission of one of their leaders, leads them to nothing and merely helps to spread more disease and create further injuries to humanity?