Life, 1915-01-14 · page 39 of 44
Life — January 14, 1915 — page 39: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This cartoon satirizes both a dubious agricultural "invention" and contemporary attitudes toward women. **The Main Joke:** George White of Eaton, Ohio, has supposedly invented a short-legged chicken that cannot wander from home. Life presents this absurdity as a genuine discovery worthy of historical recognition. **The Satirical Twist:** The piece then extends the mockery to women's rights. The text suggests that if this breeding technique works on hens, someone should invent a "short-legged woman who will stay home and attend to business"—sarcastically implying women should be physically confined to domestic duties like confined chickens. **Historical Context:** This reflects early 20th-century anxieties about women's expanding freedoms. The mention of women at "the opera" and making "suffragette stump-speeches" references women's suffrage activism. The joke mocks both the absurdity of trying to biologically engineer compliance and the desire to restrict women's mobility and independence. The cartoon uses exaggeration to mock anti-feminist sentiment of the era.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Lee. = : f e y ; d a THE HUNT BREAKFAST y : An Epoch-making Invention d ANY discoveries, destined to revo- i= lutionize the world, have been = horn amid humble and even ignoble f surroundings. Many have languished, ig unchampioned by any advertising at agent. d We are moved to circumvent Fate is in at feast one instance. Let us hereby y place upon the calendar of places on iS the map made famous as the La places of celebrities and benefactors o! the human race, the name of Eaton, \ 7OU who have had the pleasure of Ohio. Let us hereby place on record 7 x 5 . 5 the mame of George White of that taking dinner or luncheon in the din- place as the inventor of the short- : . : led chicken, Alter many years of ing-rooms under Oscar’s personal’ care aaa will be glad to know that the delightful — Sauce he serves with lobsters, oysters, Sea Oe ERE fish and hot or cold meats is now avail- ScethE aN BBin Hai Come Mi, 8 able at your purveyor’s for your private dsr fe er Shel table or club. ADSL fae the eegadous ayo the Prepared from the original recipe of Oscar of the stein Cow to the consumer. Waldorf-Astoria, by the Beech-Nut Packing Com- pany, Canajoharie, N. Y. you not d well, consult your physician bod try purebred registered Holstein Cows’ Milk. You ‘Ol soon see a change for the better. glass of it at meal times will give your older| ren something to grow and build on. is so much more easily digested and assimilated other milk that invalids, convalescents, the aged, fod all delicate people fed on it seem to show almost ite improvement. It is naturally light-colored. imagine yellow milk is better, for it isn’t. The! ical fraternity endorse it. Write for “The Story | Holstein Milk HOLSTEIN-FRIESIAN ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA ___ Brattle 1X American Bldg., boro, Vermont breeding, Mr. White has succeeded in producing a hen with legs so short that she appears to be sitting... This hen cannot roam into the neighbor's backyard. Her globe-trotting tenden- cies have been reduced to a minimum. Having no incentive to journey, she can devote her time to domestic pur- poses, She is never seen at the opera at the bargain counter, making suffra- gette stump-speeches or dancing the ballet. Nature, assisted by Mr. George White, has removed all the alien ten- dencies which have hitherto hampered her maternal instinct. The short- legged hen attends strictly to business because she has to. Mr. White hasn't left her a leg to stand on. We hope he won't stop there. If it works with a hen, why not higher up? If Mr. White can invent a short-legged woman who will stay home and attend to business, his name will be writ large in the list of the world’s immortals.