Life, 1913-12-25 · page 31 of 41
Life — December 25, 1913 — page 31: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This Life magazine page contains satirical commentary on American mortality rates, particularly targeting New Orleans's high death rate (20.2 per 1,000 annually) compared to other cities like Memphis and Minneapolis. **The Text's Satire:** The article mockingly suggests that if you want to die quickly, move to New Orleans. It then ironically abandons investigating *why* death rates vary so dramatically between cities, dismissing the complexity of factors (climate, disease, sanitation, racial conditions, alcohol consumption) as too tedious to examine. The satire criticizes this willful ignorance—the refusal to address serious public health disparities. The closing paradox suggests that where life appears easiest, it's actually most dangerous; where conditions look harsh, they're actually safest. **The Cartoons:** The top cartoon shows a motorist surrounded by instruction manuals, satirizing amateur drivers. The bottom cartoon depicts an overworked shop-girl before Christmas, illustrating labor exploitation during the holiday season. Both connect to the article's theme: societal problems people ignore or accept without investigation.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
OUR HOME CORRESPONDENCE COURSE FOR PROSPECTIVE MOTORISTS Hail, New Orleans, Hail F you want to be sure of shuffling off this mortal coil without undue delay, we are told that New Orleans is the most attractive of the cities of over 100,000. Her rate is 20.2 deaths per 1,000 annually, while Memphis, Tenn., is barely nosed out of first place with a rate of 20.1. Min- neapolis, at the other end, is nearly distanced with a rate of 10.77 It would not be worth while, of course, to pursue the inquiry to the point of discovering why there should be twice as many deaths per thousand in one city as in the other. To get at it exactly would necessitate taking a great many things into consideration and, by the time we had piled Ossa upon Pelion of statistics covering climate, hookworm, race prejudice, chilblains, liquor consumption, sewer systems, previous condition of servitude, etc., our interest in the death rate would have ebbed completely. Perhaps, therefore, we may content ourselves with a simple paradox. Where life looks easiest, it is most peril- JUST BEFORE CHRISTMAS lous and where it looks rigorous, conditions are really the THE NIGHTMARE OF AN OVERWORKED SHOP-GIRL most kind,