Life, 1914-08-13 · page 26 of 40
Life — August 13, 1914 — page 26: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
**The Main Cartoon:** Shows a mother asking her son Bertie if he'd like to become a banker like "Uncle Joseph" when grown. The boy's reply—"Couldn't I be a banker without bein' like Uncle Joseph?"—satirizes the assumption that success requires adopting the character flaws of wealthy relatives. The joke implies Uncle Joseph, though financially successful, is morally or socially objectionable ("like Uncle Joseph" suggests bad behavior or personal failings). **The Text:** A lengthy argument defending religion's role in women's advancement, dismissing the notion that religion merely keeps women "contented" or subservient. The author argues religion actually *drives* social progress and change, challenging the reader's apparently dismissive attitude toward religion's influence. **The Mermaid Illustration:** A decorative bottom element; unclear significance without additional context. **Overall Point:** This appears to be satirizing both social ambition divorced from character and debates about women's roles, religion, and progress in early 20th-century America.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Mother: BERTIE, HOW WOULD YOU LIKE TO BE A BANKER, LIKE UNCLE JOSEPH, WHEN YOU GROW UP? “COULDN'T 1 BE A BANKER WITHOUT BEIN’ LIKE UNCLE JOSEPH?” about the woman question. If you had, you would realize, and perhaps admit, that you agree with at least four-fifths of what I said, for any experienced person fifty years old who cannot get four-fifths right in which he has to say about women ought to be stood on his head in’ the corner and deprived of ink. yey don’t seem to have been successfully instructed about religion, either, Mr. Herrick, as I judge from the expression of mouth with which you spat out what I said about that. You can’t get much of a hold on the woman question unless you have some comprehension of religion, because there is a lot of religion in the world in these days, and the women have got their share of it, and perhaps more, and it is a great influence in shaping their deportment and directing their intentions. You speak of religion as though it were a kind of dope. “Men have always believed that religion was good for women ; it is likely to keep them more contented with their lot.” Tut, tut! Mr. Herrick, you might as well say that men have always believed the law of gravity was good for women and tended to keep them more contented. It does, undoubtedly, if they understand it and live and move and have their beings accordingly. Surely you are not one of those irreligious professors who are employed be- cause of what they do not know, to get young students used, betimes, to error, so it won't hurt them if they meet it later! If you are for the progress of women away from religion, your cause hasn't a leg to stand on. That is not at all the way the world is going. There is disturbance of forms, disturbance of habits, disturbance in ideas of (Continued on page 277.) i “2, comicbooks.com