Life, 1914-12-31 · page 9 of 41
Life — December 31, 1914 — page 9: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This satirical cartoon depicts a chaotic automobile scene captioned: "Yes, I find there's nothing like a motor for giving me ideas for new dance steps." The image shows passengers in an early-model car bouncing wildly as it traverses rough terrain, while a figure on the left appears startled or thrown about. The joke satirizes the novelty and unpredictability of early automobiles—their rough ride and mechanical jerking motion ironically inspire "dance steps." This reflects 1920s attitudes toward cars as both thrilling modern innovations and dangerously unpredictable machines that could cause violent, involuntary movement. The accompanying article text discusses Belgian and German post-WWI relations, unrelated to the cartoon's humor.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Tes SIN ®t. =e “YES, I FIND THERE'S NOTHING LIKE A MOTOR FOR GIVING ME IDEAS FOR NEW DANCE STEPS * Belgians, will by no means share any such view. We want indeed to sce the world finally freed from all fear of Prussian domination, but we shall be solicitous to save all the good pieces of Germany, and two-thirds of Germany is Prussia. But we shall not have much to say about it. Our sons have not been fed to Krupps, nor our cities burned and held for ransom, and the war will work out in accordance not with our feelings, but with the feelings of those countries that have a reckoning to settle. When we read of a proposal to exact a war tax of seven million dollars a month to sup- port a German army in Belgium, and read of Hacckel’s alleged suggestions of what is necessary to secure Ger- many’s future, our hopes for Germany sink low, and we wonder all over again whether there is to be a new example of “whom the gods determine to de- stroy they first make mad”. E. S. Martin, Advantages ‘I TELL you, sir, the great benefit of a college education lies in the friends you make.” “That's so. No matter how old you are, if you have been through college you can always find some one to play poker or bet on the races or go on a spree with.” I is bad luck to pass under a fad- der—if it is the ladder of fame. comicbooks.com