Life, 1914-06-18 · page 26 of 44
Life — June 18, 1914 — page 26: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
The cartoon "Feminist: I Must Build a Bridge" satirizes early feminism through a visual pun. It shows a woman in a long dress standing at the boundary between two domains—one labeled "Masculine Domain—No Trespassing" (left, showing an industrial city) and one labeled "Feminine Domain" (right). The joke conflates feminist demands for access to male-dominated spaces with literal bridge-building, mocking the suffrage and women's rights movement as absurdly transgressive. The page consists primarily of a "Letters to the Editor" section addressing recent Life articles. Topics include a railroad's simultaneous alcohol ban and meal-price increase (the railroad responds claiming these are unrelated), California's problematic prune crop, and critiques of unregulated medical practitioners. These letters suggest Life published satirical pieces that drew serious reader responses demanding corrections or further discussion of social/economic issues.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Feminist: 1 MUST BUILD A BRIDGE What Do You Think: We Are Constantly in Receipt of Important Letters Which Are Too Long for Our Limited Space. Brevity Is Desirable. One on Us To tue Eorror or Lire, Sir: In your issue of May 14th, an article catitled “Something Wrong”, criticized the Pennsylvania Railroad for what you claim was a simultaneous increase in the price of meals in its dining-cars and a new rule not to sell alcohol. The rule not to sell alcoholic liquors was established more than two years ago, in accordance with the laws of the States through which the lines of this company’ run. Meals are served table d’héte on only two trains operated by the Pennsylvania, namely, the Congressional Limited. All the rest of our dining-car ser is a la carte, cn which there has been no change in price. The raise in the price of the meals on the Congressional Limited was due, as stated, to the fact that the company was serving the meal, at one dollar, at a loss, Meals have been served at that price for many years past, but mean- while everyone is quite well aware of the fact that there has been a very con- siderable increase in the price of all foodstuffs. The prices established by this company on its dining-cars have no relationship whatever to the policy of the company in obeying the law forbidding the sale of alcohol. The impression which your erticle gives is so erroncous, and is calculated to convey such a false im- pression as to the real motives under- lying the policies of this company, that we feel justified in asking that you make a correction in your columns. It may be claimed that your article was merely facetious; the unthinking are not apt to take it so. Very truly yours, Ivy L. Ler, Executive Assistant, Purtanetruta, Pa, May 28, 1914. Thoughts about Prunes Dear Eprtor or Lire, Who makes such light laughter over nothing at all. 1 have read with interest your story- cite, page 769, current issue, on “ Orange-day". But what about “ Prune- day”, for such we are assured by the Rotary Club we are to have? Notwith- standing our orange culture, prunes are prunes for California, especially this year, when, for some reason unknown to our bugologists, meteorologists, horti- cnlturists and our Chines’ weather prophet, Sing Kee, our prunes’ are drop- ping like—well, the, prune-grower, with- out the consent of the ‘Prune-dealer, the prune-buyer or the ‘péune- eater, has already. decided that the prune crop will be only one-fourth of. normal, or about twenty-five million pounds, which, if properly distributed by legal enactment, will give about one prune per capita, at, say, one dollar per prune. Wherefore, what are your thoughts on the compul- sory edibility of the prune? Yours, Geo. H. Stir. Sax Jose, Catirornta, May 3, 1914. “Paths” Dear Lire: I like your plea for medical freedom. We almost have it in California, with this result: Allopath, homcopath, osteopath, nat- uropath, divine-path, clairvoyant-path, clectricopath, kinesopath, massageopath. hydrotheropath, natural - science - path, Christian - Science - path, oxygenopath, cheiropath, scientific healing, eclectic- path, dregless-path and other “ paths” coming on every train! The dear liberty-loving public is so befuddled it does not know where it is Yours for free license, Ricuaro Ettis, Saw Dieco, Cattrornta, May 20, 1914. comichooks.com