Life, 1915-03-25 · page 18 of 44
Life — March 25, 1915 — page 18: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
**Top Image (Spring):** A fishing scene showing "Old John Trout" encountering the same fly lure twice—once last summer, once now. The joke: the trout recognizes and mocks the repeated, obvious deception. **Main Article & Cartoon:** This satirizes the creation of a "Bureau of National Criticism" to keep ex-Presidents busy. The text proposes these former leaders should spend time writing, lecturing, and complaining about how things were better under their Republican administrations—essentially converting them into professional critics of the current (Democratic) government. **Bottom Cartoon:** Shows a suffragist woman with a "Votes for Women" placard being confronted disrespectfully by a child. Her indignant response, "How dare you speak to me, sir!" satirizes the perceived contradiction: women demanding political authority while maintaining strict social hierarchies and propriety. **The Connection:** Both the trout cartoon and suffrage cartoon mock people who fall for—or deploy—transparent, repeated tricks. The "Bureau" article suggests even ex-Presidents can be treated as transparent political theater.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Old John Trout: pee Oe aot ‘ Bas, SPRING THAT'S THE SAME FLY I SAW LAST SUMMER A New Industry (Or What to Do with Our Useless Citizens.) A BUREAU OF NATIONAL CRITICISM having — been formed, the motto, “ Stand by our ex- Presidents” was unanimously adopted. The object of the new movement was then set forth in the following terms: “This bureau shall be composed of government knockers, whose religion’ shall be to point out how much better we were under Republican misrule, and what might have happened if. things had been other than they are. The country shall be divided up among our ex-Presidents, who shall hereafter spend all their time in writing, lectur- ing, expounding, preaching, exhorting and explaining what they would do if they had a chance.” The above constitution having been placed upon the books, Messrs. Taft and Roosevelt. were assigned megaphones and started out upon their daily beats. ZOPLE who live in small flats shouldn't take the Congressional Record. For unremitting accretive voluminosity there is nothing that quite equals it. “HOW DARE YOU SPEAK TO ME, SIR!”