Life, 1915-04-08 · page 13 of 44
Life — April 8, 1915 — page 13: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page satirizes the 1920s popularity of spiritualism and afterlife tourism. The top cartoon shows two elderly men on a park bench—labeled "Philosophers"—discussing whether hell has become obsolete. The article proposes that hell has been "dragged out of its hole by Billy Sunday" (a famous evangelical preacher of that era), turning damnation into a tourist attraction with "wide open" access, including drafts and heat. The joke: hell became so commercialized and comfortable as a "summer resort" that religious people lost their fear of it. The bottom cartoon, "Time's Revenge," contrasts prehistoric humans fleeing dinosaurs with a modern golfer calmly ignoring a dinosaur—suggesting humanity's anxieties have shifted from primal fears to modern social concerns.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Will Hell Come Back? VERY dog has his day. It has for some time been popularly sup- posed that hell, having enjoyed itself on earth for many years, had received all that was coming to it, and had re- tired permanently from the religious ring. According to the latest news, however, it has been dragged out of its hole by Billy Sunday, who is mak- ing a more or less successful effort to put hell on its feet. As a summer resort hell had un- doubted advantages. All the people that you really wanted to know were there. Everything was wide open—including the drafts. The pro- prietor was on the warmest terms with all. Everybody was “hot stuff”. To many really religious people it was a great comfort to believe firmly PHILOSOPHERS in a hell where they would not have tages, there was no particular mourn- to go themselves, but where they could — ing after hell when it finally went out. send all of their most intimate friends. We resigned ourselves to its loss and Yet, in spite of its obvious advan- went to Palm Beach. TIME'S REVENGE comichooks.