Life, 1914-08-20 · page 18 of 40
Life — August 20, 1914 — page 18: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page satirizes early 20th-century American society through multiple cartoons: **"Leading Citizens"** (top): Shows a parade of formally-dressed figures, likely mocking prominent public figures parading down a street. **"Misdirected Liberality"**: References a real incident involving George W. Perkins (a wealthy businessman/politician) giving a motorcycle to someone's secretary, which crashed. The cartoon sarcastically suggests Perkins should have instead given motorcycles to the Pinchot brothers—a pointed jab at wealthy philanthropists making wasteful charitable gestures. The Pinchots were prominent Progressive-era figures, making this likely political mockery. **"Have a Care"** (bottom left): Warns against buying thin serge fabric—practical consumer advice wrapped in satirical commentary about materialism. **"Old Mr. Mole"** (bottom right): Shows an elderly figure surrounded by motorcycles and debris, captioning his indifference to chaos caused by his presence downtown—likely mocking obliviousness of prominent citizens to disruption they cause. The page generally satirizes wealthy elites and their disconnection from ordinary life.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Humor and Senousness r is not enough to have a sense of humor ; one must also have a sense of seriousness. Most ‘people have either one or the other. A proper combination of both is rare. Some people think they have a sense HAVE A CARE DON'T BUY YOUR SERGES TOO THIN LEADING CITIZENS of humor when they haven't. This, however, is as good as actually having it, so far as they are concerned, be- cause nobody ever succeeds in con- vincing them that they haven't it. Most people have a sense of serious- ness, but for some reason dislike to admit it. “Me serious?” exclaims the con- firmed pessimist. “Never! If there is one thing—”" Old Mr, Mole: Misdirected Liberality T was a mistake for Mr. George W. Perkins to give a motorcycle to the Colonel's secretary who ran it into a tree and broke it. What Mr. Per- kins should have done was to invest a little more money and give a high- powered motorcycle tandem to the Brothers Pinchot. Then, when that ran into a tree, there would be some- thing substantial to show for it. NOW, I DON'T SEE WHY EVERYONE HAS TO GET SO EXCITED JUST BECAUSE I HAPPEN TO COME DOWN MAIN STREET comichooks.gom