Life, 1914-02-05 · page 16 of 44
Life — February 5, 1914 — page 16: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
**"Our Mistake"** satirizes New Orleans' claim to the lowest death rate by excluding Black citizens from mortality statistics. The article mocks Southern racial exclusion as absurd—if cities could arbitrarily omit inconvenient populations (the poor, immigrants, children), death rates become meaningless. The joke is that New Orleans' "perfect gentleman of the Caucasion race" qualifier reveals the statistical dishonesty. **"Listening"** references the Texas-Mexico border during the Mexican Revolution (likely Pancho Villa or similar turbulent period), depicting citizens awaiting news of political violence or intrigue—the poisoned needle reference suggests assassination rumors common to that era. **The illustration** showing a man leaving a woman for furnace duties is captioned as a "bridegroom," suggesting domestic tedium and masculine duty override romantic commitment—a common early-20th-century domestic humor trope. **"Coward"** is a sentimental poem about hesitation and choosing safety over ambition.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
HEN is a death rate not 5 a death rate? When it is compiled in New Or- we) leans, A recent innocent A) > astimadversion of ours upon ea A the fact that New Orleans N has the highest death rate in the United States brings us a budget of objections, wanting it understood that they are very particular ‘ee who dies in New Orleans, and if he isn't a perfect gentleman of the Caucasion: race he is ignored in the statistics and all scientific computations. In other words, it scems that our figures included negroes, which is not at all proper. What a monumental idea! Death-rates juggled while you wait. We up North here could use the same scheme for ignoring the mor- tality of our slums. Why stop with negroes in our exclusiveness? If a city wished to make a particularly proud showing upon no foundation whatever, it could say: “Our death rate, not including negroes, longshoremen, bar- Lers, children under sixteen, men and women over fifty, or others who have passed away, is zero.” Listening OWN on the Texas border citizens with cars to the ground are listening for this message: jabbed by a poisoned needle. That why I have behaved so. Good-by Huerta.” “ NOW, LOOK—ER—JUST A TRIFLE LESS UNPLEASANT, PLEASE” Coward SEE the hills of dream against the sky, I knew their splendor from the valley’s shade, But, ah, they gleam so terrible and high, I wonder who could tempt them unafraid! | Sometimes, in sleep, I follow winding ways, So, searching, sighing through the lonely night, Sometimes, from dawn. the fancied summit stays, Before my eyes, ‘till all the stars are bright. And would be great and wonderful to tread The climbing pathways to that glowing crest, But long and dark and chilly—so, instead Bridegroom: Goov-BYE, DARLING, 1 HATE. TO LEAVE YoU, Mine be the meadow’s harvest and its rest! RUT I SIMPLY MUST RUN DOWN AND ATTEND TO THE FURNACE Leolyn Louise Everett. comicbooks.com