Life, 1914-07-09 · page 15 of 40
Life — July 9, 1914 — page 15: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
**"Anticipatory"** section: This piece satirizes the pre-digging of 180 graves for miners in Eccles, West Virginia, following a mining disaster. Life sardonically praises this as demonstrating "brotherhood" while mocking the grim practicality—miners couldn't even choose their own burial sites. The satire critiques both the mining industry's deadly conditions and the hollow "political economist" language used to justify inadequate safety systems. **"Stable"** section: This targets British nationalism and the suffragette movement. It celebrates a new airplane stabilizer developed at England's Farnborough factory, then delivers a cutting final line: the writer wishes this safety device could be "attached to all militant suffragettes"—sarcastically suggesting suffragettes are as dangerous and uncontrollable as unstable aircraft. This reflects anti-suffragette sentiment common in 1910s satirical publications. Both pieces use dark irony to critique contemporary social institutions.
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Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
“LIFE: Anticipatory 'HE newspapers tell us that when the accident occurred at the mines in Eccles, West Virginia, in anticipation of the fact that there were a lot of people in the mines who never would come out alive, one hundred and eighty graves were dug beforehand to receive them. To have one’s grave dug by thoughtful people in antici- pation of one’s demise is an indication of the spirit of brotherhood, and the anxiety for the welfare of others that, as the political economists say, “augurs well”, Any- thing that “augurs well” is a good thing, In the case of the miners who were killed, it was unfortunate that they themselves could not select their own graves, and that they had to permit others to do it for them, But this also illustrates the fact that no system is neces- sarily perfect in all of its details, when it is first started. No doubt in the future, when it does become perfected, every miner can arrange at the time he signs his contract to go to work to have his grave dug where he would like to have it, and can possibly secure a iew hours off in advance in order to make the proper personal selection. We cannot expect to do everything at once, [r AVAM NAMES THE BEASTS FAD ERR “WHAT EVERY WOMAN KNows” Stable HE London Times is delighted to inform its public that the ple aeroplane should first have been used in England. “We may congratulate ourselves,” says the Times, “that the aeroplane is the product of the Government's Aircraft Factory at Farnborough.” The new stabilizer, or whatever it may be called, enables anybody to operate an aeroplane without danger; the machine righting itself in adverse air-currents and, when the power is off, slipping to the ground without harm. What a pity that it cannot be used as an attachment to all militant suffragettes! comicbooks.com