Life — January 14, 1915 — page 12: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# Page 56: Life Magazine This page contains two separate pieces: **"A Three-Winged Race"** (illustration, top left): A fantastical creature with three wings appears to be racing or in motion. The specific satirical target is unclear from the image alone—it may reference a contemporary invention, scientific claim, or technological competition, but without additional context, I cannot identify what "three-winged race" specifically mocks. **"Ambition"** (story, left column): A fable about a cricket who sings despite a mouse's warning. The mouse predicts the cricket will lose his life to his "pains," but the cricket continues, eventually attempting ventriloquism. The tale satirizes artistic ambition and self-deception—the cricket believes his technique masks his true location, but the house cat easily catches him anyway, revealing that ambition and perfectionism can be dangerously delusional.