Life, 1914-01-01 · page 13 of 44
Life — January 1, 1914 — page 13: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This cartoon satirizes New Year's greed and materialism. Father Time (labeled "1914") holds a large sack while five men in formal dress eagerly reach toward it, hands outstretched. The figures appear to represent different social classes or professions competing to extract wealth and opportunity from the coming year—hence "grab-bag," a party game where participants blindly pull items from a bag. The satire mocks the self-interested scrambling that accompanies each new year, suggesting that rather than making genuine resolutions for self-improvement, people are primarily motivated by personal gain and advantage. The cartoon reflects Progressive Era skepticism about greed and commercialism.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
THE GRAB-BAG New Year's Resolutions Fo swearing off my vices few I have no slightest predilection, For as those weaknesses I view They're all the sort to stand inspection. They’re not so very bad I feel It necessary e’er to hide ’em, And as their essence they reveal I find there’s little harm inside ’em. They’re what some catalogue as sins So innocent that they are venial, And each one ends as each begins, In motives altogether genial. I'm not at all their victim—no— And in no sense are they controlling, Yet I should grieve to have them go Because in trouble they're consoling. I don’t pursue them with much zest, Or, as one might remark, with unction, And each one has at its behest Some saving shackle of compunction. I keep them in the main because, As I’ve observed both man and woman, ‘Tis one of Nature's funny laws That no one likes a perfect human. Yet with the new-born year I think It wise to make some vows reforming, And while from swearing of I shrink I find the notion rather warming. That, 'stead of knocking off some vice— The sort that may or may not hurt you— 'Twould help us cut a lot of ice If we swore on some brand new virtue! John Kendrick Bangs. A New Year's Call How like a wooer, gallant still Though old, comes Time through winter snows To bring to you, as lovers will, Twelve roses—every month a rose. And though the petal-days will fall As each warm golden heart uncloses, What matter? Constant Time will call Next year with yet more fragrant roses, Arthur Guiterman, “FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE, OLD MAN, SLIP ME A FI 1 HADN'T COUNTED ON FEEDING AN ARMY.” “ WELL, WHAT DID YOU EXPECT? SHE'S JUST OFP A HUNGER STRIKE.” Make Reasonable Women Comfortable 'HE anti-suffrage position of most of the comfortable women is not weakened by the fact that they are comfortable. Their opinion as to the expediency of votes for women is just as important as though they had suits pending in the divorce courts. They are just as repre- sentative as the uncomfortable women, Indeed, their opinion should count double, because the uncomfortable women are noisy, whereas the comfortable ones are not. The proportion of the uncomfortable women who would be eased by votes is small, but votes might help some of them to diffuse their discomfort. So far as laws can go, make the reasonable women comfortable. That is one way of escape from woman suffrage. comicbooks.com