Life — April 15, 1915 — page 12: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# Analysis This page from *Life* magazine contains two satirical pieces: **"On Life's Wire"** depicts a conversation between "Life" (personified) and "Jitney" about the latter's financial precarity. The satire targets the "jitney bus" craze—cheap, unregulated shared-ride services that proliferated in the 1910s-20s, undercutting established taxi and streetcar companies. Life advises Jitney to avoid Wall Street speculation and political entanglement, warning that the industry attracts corrupt influences. The joke is that even a humble jitney operator faces the same pressures as wealthy businessmen. The cartoon above shows a bear and rabbit, with the rabbit claiming to run a "marathon," likely satirizing some contemporary endurance craze or questionable business venture. The page also advertises relief efforts for Belgian war sufferers, dating this to WWI era.