Life, 1914-08-20 · page 28 of 40
Life — August 20, 1914 — page 28: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This 1908 *Life* magazine page contains satirical commentary on several social issues: **"The Last Round-Up"** (top cartoon): A darkly humorous image about rabid dogs in New York City, showing armed figures shooting at dogs. The caption suggests eliminating "mad dogs" would make NYC "a safe place to live"—likely satirizing urban crime or violence problems. **Water/Fire Joke**: A servant comedy sketch mocking the absurdity of class dynamics—the master dismisses ringing for water because the room isn't on fire, suggesting servants' labor is undervalued. **"Take-It-Back Day"**: The main article satirizes Carmen, Oklahoma's initiative for citizens to return borrowed items. The piece uses this small town's honesty to mock corporate corruption, specifically targeting "railroad fiscalizers and trust kings" who exploit widows and orphans. It advocates making "Take-It-Back Day" national, sarcastically suggesting wealthy industrialists should return stolen savings to the poor. **Rich Boy Cartoon**: Final joke mocking wealthy children's entitlement—complaining about chocolate cake as too ordinary. Overall, the page critiques wealth inequality, corporate fraud, and class pretension through humor.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
{ < ieee: iti ‘THE LAST ROUND-UP “ONE MORE VOLLEY AND NEW YORK WILL BE A SAFE PLACE TO LIVE IN” This picture appeared originally in Lure of September 17, 1908. We reprint it now as it is always suitable to the mad (?) dog season. “DID YOU RING FOR WATER, SIR?” “RING FOR WATER, SAH! No, SAH! WHY SHOULD I RING FOR WATER? THIS ROOM ISN’T ON FIRE, 1S 17?” “Take-It-Back Day” 'O the town of Carmen, Oklahoma, belongs the high honor—an honor which we trust will more and more come to be recognized as such—of appointing an annual “Take-It-Back Day”. Upon this day all borrowers and purloiners, both young and old, both great and small, are to examine carefully of their goods and chattels, selecting therefrom with scrupulous accuracy everything of which they are not rightfully seized and returning it to its right- ful owner, Amen. Can it be possible that, as we journey onward toward the light, this splendid example will fire the rest of us with the zeal to go and do likewise? We could wish, of course, that Carmen were a little bit larger, thus making its example more valuable. It con- tains less than five thousand inhabitants, and therefore could present at such a ceremony nothing like the difficul- ties to be found in a great financial center like New York. If our railroad fiscalizers and trust kings undertook to return to the widows and orphans from all parts of the world the savings they have fiscalled away from them, it would be a tremendous job, albeit none the less worth trying on that account. , Let “Take-It-Back-Day” be a ‘national institution, and let us observe it in letter and in spirit. WHY DIDN'T YE GET COCOANUT CAKE? Poor Little Rich Boy: VM SICK 0’ THAT OLD CHOCOLATE STUFF