Life, 1914-05-14 · page 9 of 44
Life — May 14, 1914 — page 9: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
The main cartoon depicts a man and woman, with the caption suggesting they're inviting new neighbors to dinner, but the butcher mistakenly left only "fair" meat. This appears to be domestic humor about common household frustrations. The page's substantive content concerns "Toxic Poison Kills Seven" — a news dispatch from Los Angeles reporting a serum administered to fight disease that proved fatal to some patients. The accompanying article discusses whether poverty causes unfitness and debates "manifest destiny" as justification for eliminating the unfit. This reflects early 20th-century eugenics discussions prominent in American intellectual circles. The "Ultimatum Cocktail" recipe and "Pop/Sonny" dialogue are lighthearted filler content typical of Life's satirical format.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
“Y THINK, WILLIAM, I'LL ASK THOSE NEW PEOPLE NEXT DOOR TO TAKE DI. “WHAT FoR?” ER WITH US TO-NIGHT.” “ WELL, THE BUTCHER, BY MISTAKE, LEFT THEIR MEAT ORDER HERE AND IT SEEMS ONLY FAIR.” Toxic Poison Kills Seven Usrectat DespatcH To THE HERALD.) Los Ancetes, Cat, Tuesday, March 10, 1914.—A serum was ad- ministered to eight men patients at the County Hospital last. Saturday. Four died that night and three on Sunday. the eighth was alive to- day, and some hope was held out for his recovery. OME serums are more effective than other serums. No serum ever cures disease, but there is large profit in its manufacture, Fitting and Fighting TH widely held doctrine that pov- erty is merely nature’s way of eliminating the unfit is very comfort- ing so long as it works; that is, so long as the unfit agree to abide by this manifest destiny and allow themselves to be eliminated according to pro- gram. The trouble comes, however, when the unfit get together, talk it over and decide to make a test as to whether manifest destiny is really as inevitable 865 and as fatalistic as the professors say. It is annoying to the fit to see the unfit talking things over and denying their own unfitness. It is more annoying to have the unfit enter demurrers and issue pronunciamentos demanding a revision of the rules of the game of life. It is most annoying to have the unfit show a grim determination to put their demands into effect. When this time comes the fit prepare to fight the unfit, provided the fit have not been so confident of their fitness as to allow themselves to forget how to fight. When the unfit fight the fit, then we have war, and, as all is fair in war, constitutions, statutes and court deci- sions are automatically repealed. Thereupon the professors of ethics and the prophets perch upon something conveniently safe and wait until the clouds roll by in order that they may discover who is really the fit and who the unfit, and why and how long. Bs Oud. Recipe LTIMATUM COCKTAIL. Take equal parts of grape juice and tabasco sauce; stir together patiently until all hope is lost; then serve with whipped pulque. OP: Yes, all engines have cow- catchers. Sure, sonny. Sonny: That’s funny. I thought they only needed 'em on milk trains. THE ANNOUNCEMENT OF SPRING comicbooks.com