Life, 1914-08-27 · page 24 of 44
Life — August 27, 1914 — page 24: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
The main cartoon satirizes opposition to women's suffrage. A female dentist treats a male patient while arguing that women deserve voting rights—the humor lies in the irony: the man benefits from her professional competence yet claims women shouldn't vote. This directly mocks anti-suffrage arguments as logically indefensible. Below are shorter satirical pieces. "Futuristic Impressions of New York" absurdly describes Manhattan neighborhoods through fragmented, nonsensical imagery (elevators "gasping," streets with "ghostly" qualities), mocking the city's chaotic modernization. "Superfluous" presents a brief dialogue: clergymen stranded in Europe are irreplaceable—except they're not needed anyway, since people are too distracted by news of Christian nations committing violence and robbery to care about religious teachings. This critiques Christian hypocrisy during wartime. The final piece jokes about uncertain romantic identity between two people.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
‘WHEN WOMEN PRACTISE DENTISTRY “MY DEAR SIR, YOU CAN'T CIVE ME ONE LOGICAL REASON WHY WOMEN SHOULD NOT BE ALLOWED To VOTE, AND YoU KNow IT” Futuristic Impressions of New York 'N General: Noise with French salad dressing. A pro- longed tipping. Extremely hat-boys. A waiter inter- mittently, Subways nonchalantly and a purple tango. Polo Grounds loudly. Lower Manhattan: A squeezing upward. An alp. A going with elevators, Gaspingly a ticker. A frenzied financialness and churches with ancient Dutchness. Un- ceasingly shorthand. Fourteenth Street: A tiger exceedingly and a Murphy. A political sagging. A scratching and a scratched back. A purse in the dark. Ghostly a Sulzer, Twenty-third Street: Table-d’hétedly an atmosphere. Rubberly a wax-works, Sky-ticklingly a tower and a park loafer. F. D, B. Superfluous ODD: I hear that several hundred clergymen have been marooned in Europe and that their congrega- tions in this country can find no substitutes. Toro: Um! That will not make so much difference at this time. “Why not?” “Well, we are all so busy reading the sanguinary details of the leading Christian nations of the world murdering and robbing each other that there is really no time to listen jo the teachings of the Gospel.” Question of Identity HE: Am TI the first girl you ever kissed? He: Why—er—I don’t know. Your face seems familiar, ‘