Life, 1914-03-05 · page 35 of 60
Life — March 5, 1914 — page 35: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
**Top Cartoon**: "John Bull Might Have Less Trouble with the 'Militants' If He Adopted Some of Our Prison Customs" This references the British suffragettes (militant women's rights activists), depicted on the left in striped prison garb. The cartoon satirizes harsh British prison treatment of suffragettes by suggesting America's prison system might be preferable. "John Bull" represents Britain. The joke contrasts British militant feminism with American approaches. **"An Improper Subject" Article**: Mocks a Methodist minister's heaven-focused sermon at a tuberculosis sanitarium. A dying patient ironically replies she's paying $18 weekly to *avoid* heaven, suggesting her present misery makes the afterlife unappealing—dark humor about suffering and religious platitudes. **Bottom Caption**: "Dancing Deacons Are Now Proper" appears to reference social debates about whether clergy should participate in secular entertainment like dancing, once considered improper. The page satirizes Victorian/early 20th-century social propriety and institutional hypocrisy across religious, political, and criminal justice contexts.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
TE) \4 Hrfurexusat NN wR wea JOHN BULL MIGHT HAVE LESS TROUBLE WITH THE “ MILITANTS" IF HE ADOPTED SOME OF OUR PRISON CUSTOMS: one justified in praising a guide to them? Some of the Bristol AKER: Have you noticed that our dog looks like statuettes are almost human. And Derby figurines, in spite Shakespeare? of their exquisite delicacy, are, nevertheless, in the eye Barker: Yes, he has a Hall Caine-ine expression. of the purist, all indelicate under their glaze. Chelsea dishes. too, have a bad habit of obtruding flowers on our attention. And flowers, when one comes to, study them, are highly im- Proper things. But enough; on second thought I refuse to recommend “The China Collector”. I refuse, indeed, to recommend anything until next week. J.B. Kerfoot. An Improper Subject Na recent Sunday afternoon at a large sanitarium devoted entirely to treating tuberculosis, a young Methodist minister was preaching to the assembled patients, nurses and doctors. In a most vivid manner he was de- scribing the great peace, contentment and happiness to be had in the world to come. Suddenly one of the patients, a girl of about twenty years of age, burst out crying. “What is the matter?” was the general chorus, as the rest crowded around her. “Oh,” she sobbed, “I wish he would stop talking about heaven. I am here paying eighteen dollars a week just to keep out of that place.” The question of medical education is one that is attracting a good deal of attention just now, for it is generally recognized by those who are in the best posi- tion to judge, that all is not as it should be. —Medical Record. We have suspected this for some time, but our natural diffidence has prevented us before from saying what is now so gracefully conceded by so distinguished an authority, DANCING DEACONS ARE NOW PROPER comicbooks.com