Life, 1914-02-19 · page 17 of 40
Life — February 19, 1914 — page 17: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains three distinct satirical pieces: **1. Library Pediment (top):** Life magazine mockingly congratulates itself for being selected for a sculpture on the New York Public Library's newly completed pediment—a prestigious honor. The joke is self-congratulatory vanity: Life claims it was "natural, of course, to select the best," sarcastically suggesting Life's own importance. **2. "G.O.K." Anecdote (center):** A humorous story about medical incompetence. An American doctor discovers British hospitals use "G.O.K." to denote patient ailments—which stands for "God Only Knows," implying doctors don't actually know what's wrong. The piece highlights unnecessary surgeries, particularly appendectomies performed on healthy appendixes. **3. Male Stenographers (right):** Satirizes a government employment notice seeking male stenographers. The commentary sarcastically questions why men are needed when women have proven more competent and willing to work for lower wages ($84-$900/year). The final "What airs!" mocks men's entitlement to positions they've abandoned.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
'HIS sculptured pediment of the New York public library, just completed, seems intended as a well- merited tribute to art and literature as personified by a famous periodical. When once decided that a periodical should be thus honored, it was natural, of course, to select the best. Our thanks to the gentlemen who made this decision. Dog: THE PROFESSOR 1S SO ABSENT- MINDED HE TAKES ME FOR A STEAMER RUG NEEDLESS surgical operation may be poor fun for the victim, but the surgeon himself seems to have a sense of humor, This anecdote, printed in The Open Door, throws its ray of light into dark places. Mr. Roger W. Babson says that in looking up appendicitis cases, he learned that in seventeen per cent. of the operations for that disease, the Post-mortem examinations showed that the appendix was in perfect condition. “The whole subject,” he adds, “re- minds me of a true story I heard in London recently. In the hospitals there, the ailment of the patient, when he is admitted, is denoted by certain letters, such as ‘T. B.’ for tuberculosis. An American doctor was examining these history slips, when his curiosity was aroused by the number on which the letters ‘G. O. K.’ appeared. He said to the physician who was showing him around: “*There seems to be a severe epi- demic of this G. O. K. in London. What is it, anyhow?’ “Oh, that means “God only knows”,’ replied the English physi- cian,” SUIFTING THE BURDEN Male Stenographers Wanted Washington, Jan. 5.—The Govern. ment is urgently in necd competent stcnographers and type- writers, In fact the demand far exceeds the supply—Daily Paper. HE — govern- ment. will have to apply at the eugenic of- fice and find out how a supply of male stenog- raphers can be bred. There seem not to be many in the market nowa- days. From $84 to $900 a year is what the government pays them to. start with, Perhaps that is not enough even for a male. Competent women herc- abouts get more than that. But why this cry for male stenographers? The ladies have possessed themselves of this occupation, and, as always hap- pens, the men have considerably retired from it. That is the part of discretion. In the branches in which women excel, men cannot compete with them. They don't try. They find another job. Are not the women stenographers competent, that the government wants men? What airs! comicbooks.com