Life, 1914-01-01 · page 17 of 44
Life — January 1, 1914 — page 17: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains two satirical pieces critiquing early 20th-century attitudes. **"Down With the Past"** is an essay mocking anti-historical sentiment—likely responding to Progressive Era thinkers dismissing classical education as irrelevant. The argument absurdly claims history is unreliable fiction and questions why studying Nero or Alexander matters for modern issues like pensions and women's suffrage. The satire targets those who reject traditional knowledge as useless to contemporary problems. **The cartoons** are lighter social humor: The top illustration depicts a woman appearing as a ghostly vision while a man works at his desk—titled "Her Voice of Years Ago"—suggesting intrusive memories of past relationships. The bottom cartoon jokes about new wireless telephone technology (likely radio or early wireless), with "Cobble" and "Stone" characters exchanging quips about long-distance communication making it impossible to escape one's wife even on European vacations. Together, the page contrasts serious intellectual debate about historical relevance with everyday domestic comedy about modern technology's inescapable nature.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
HER VOICE OF YEARS ACO “DON'T MIND FIDO'S GROWLING, HENRY. ANYTHING BY 11,” HE DOESN’T MEAN Down With the Past S there no way in which we can get rid of the past? The amount of time consumed in studying it is enormous. The public demands a knowledge of the past on the part of those who are supposed to be in authority. Hence we shirk the present, and emasculate the future. A history indeed, is worse than any obvious work of fiction because it is seldom true to human nature. We have no doubt that Nero had respectable moments. We believe that if ho was put alongside of Thomas Ryan or some of our personal friends he would show up very well; but history has pictured him as a kind of monster with- out any semblance to the truth, Besides, who cares anything about Nero? How does a knowledge of Alex- ander’s campaigns give us any means of reducing the pension list or mitigating the horrors of woman suffrage ? Let the dead past bury its dead. Here's to the present! Come, all ye mighty thinkers, and begin to analyze it! OBBLE: You can talk cighteen hundred miles with- out any instrument. Stoxe: If this keeps up, sending your wife on a trip to Europe won't do a particle of good. comicbooks.com