Life, 1914-08-20 · page 36 of 40
Life — August 20, 1914 — page 36: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This Life magazine page contains three distinct pieces: **Top left:** A news photo of the Scranton Flood, showing a bridge destroyed by a July cloudburst—straightforward disaster journalism illustrating the magazine's visual approach. **Bottom left:** An advertisement promoting Leslie's as an illustrated weekly newspaper (10 cents), emphasizing that pictures convey news better than words alone. **Right side:** Two satirical pieces: 1. "The Matrimony Route" mocks romantic courtship as a railroad journey with humorous stops (Acquaintance Jct., Romance Village, Proposal Station, etc.), ending at "Meatbill Center"—suggesting marriage becomes financially draining. The fine print jokes about emotional "damages" and excess baggage charges for women with multiple husbands. 2. "Peace" depicts a jubilant Englishman celebrating receiving news his "militant wife" was sentenced to 30 days jail. This references the British suffragette movement; the cartoon satirizes both women's activism and marital discord by treating her imprisonment as good news for her husband. Both rely on anti-feminist humor typical of the era.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Jennings SCRANTON FLOOD SWEEPING AWAY BRIDGE. The result of 2 July cloudburst which did great damage in the city Leslie's Illustrated Weekly Newspaper HETHER your time is lim- ited or not, you like to get the news in pictures—vivid, inter- esting pictures—that tell the story where words fail. Leslie’s is an illustrated weekly newspaper. At all newsstands 10 cents The Matrimony Route (Summer Excursions via the Cupid Flyer.*) Acquaintance Jct. Friendship Corners. Romance Village... Proposal Station Nuptial Terminus. Honeymoon Harbor. Meatbill Center... . . * Stops on signal only. This schedule subject to change without notice. The Railroad Company will not be liable for damages to passengers’ hearts, affections or pockct- books. Mislaid illusions may be called for at our Lost and Found Department. Ladies accompanied by morc than one husband will be charged excess baggage. F. D. B. Easy Payments ASY payments are, of course, easy to arrange for, but that doesn’t warrant us in calling them easy. Nor do we get any such warrant from the fact that, at the time we contract these debts, it looks as if it would be casy to make the payments when they fall due. Of course hope still springs in the human breast. To buy something and see it wear out before your very eyes while the pay- ments continue on and on and on with unabated virility may seem easy to certain rare heroic natures, but there are not enough of these to justify us in spoiling a per- fectly good adjective like “easy”. Deferred payments, if you will, or weekly payments, or incessant payments, but not easy payments. PEACE SNAPSHOT OF AN ENGLISHMAN WHO HAS JUST RECEIVED A WIRE THAT HIS MILITANT WIFE HAS BEEN SEN- TENCED TO JAIL FOR THIRTY DAYS