Life, 1914-06-25 · page 9 of 45
Life — June 25, 1914 — page 9: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
**The Top Cartoon** depicts a fishing scene with two figures and boats. A man says to a boy: "Oh, Captain, let's hide. Here comes Aunt Emily and she'll kiss us. She always does." This is a simple domestic humor joke about avoiding unwanted affection from a relative. **"Advancing Crime"** is a satirical essay criticizing the publicity given to murders. The author sarcastically suggests murderers should advertise their crimes to film companies or newspapers beforehand, since extensive media coverage already occurs anyway. He mocks how trial outcomes become secondary to public entertainment value, arguing that criminals receive undeserved gratitude for providing sensational news stories. **The bottom joke** between Frost and Snow satirizes luxury car appointments: one praises Billy's motor-car quality; the other quips that everything is first-class "but the passengers."
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
gd Chan inlet, ee, fi ese < EPO eet AD Billy (to new friend): OH, CAPTAIN, LET'S HIDE. HERE COMES AUNT EMILY AND SIIE'LL KISS US. SHE ALWAYS DOES Advancing Crime HE other day a Mexican gencral was obliging enough to have a prisoner shot for the benefit of a moving- picture man who happened to be on hand, thus providing a new thriller for countless audiences, This ought to suggest an idea to some of our popular murderers. Have your crime recorded properly. Before committing it drop a postal to the nearest film man, or call him up over the telephone and say: “I’m going to kill somebody at such an hour.” Have no fear that this will make any difference so far as the results to the murderer are concerned. Our laws are so arranged at present that every crime must naturally run its course in the newspapers anyway, the guilt of the prisoner being quite incidental to the main object of keeping the public interested. If the trial is absorbing enough, it can always be done over again. Think of the added interest, however; in addition to reading the newspaper accounts during the day, one can spend the evening in watching the crime being committed. Every murderer would be entitled to so much public gratitude for this new service that his sentence would undoubtedly tend to be made lighter than under the Present system. ROST: The appointments of Billy's motor-car are beautiful. Everything is first-class, Snow: Yes, everything but the passengers, WHY PAY MORE? comicbooks.com