Life, 1915-04-29 · page 8 of 44
Life — April 29, 1915 — page 8: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains two satirical cartoons about women's suffrage. The upper cartoon depicts a mounted soldier or official on a rearing horse confronting a pedestrian, captioned "Can you ride him, Bill?" / "How do I know, you idiot? Ask the horse." This appears to mock the unpredictability of the suffrage debate. The lower cartoon shows a courtroom scene where a judge addresses a jury, with the caption suggesting jurors must evaluate a defendant described as wearing shoes, being fat and old—critiquing how women might be judged superficially rather than fairly. The accompanying text notes Life magazine's historically satirical stance on women's suffrage, explaining their recent silence is due to wartime concerns taking precedence. The piece expresses willingness to resume skepticism once peace returns.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
740 “LIFE: Life Unchanged About Suffrage HE Boston Journal records it among the Signs of the Times which portend votes for women, that “the famous weekly Lire, which has been an inveterate jiber the suffragist, has been converted”. Since when, good neighbor? Since when? Lire is not yet conscious of any change of heart or profession about woman suffrage. If it has seemed dur- ing recent months to neglect that subject, it has been because the war was such an engrossing interest. When a great crisis of human history is proceeding, to be fol- lowed presently by who knows what reconstruction of life and human relations, it is surely excusable to let the lesser disputes lie over until the world finds out where it is, Lire has neglected suffrage for the same reason the Eng- lish militants have neglected militancy, because there was too much else going on in the world. It would be glad to keep on neglecting it for some years to come until experiments now in progress with votes for women, especially in Illinois, have time to be tried out. But that might take too long. To present efforts to get the question voted on in state legislatures it has no objet tion, Such efforts lately succeeded in Connecticut, with the result that the legislative vote went without a dissent- ing voice in favor of the antis. That may not be quite a representative disclosure of Eastern sentiment on this subject, but it is a good deal significant. So far as Lire is concerned, the suffragists are welcome to anything the rest of the women will let them have, but its sympathies are still with the antis as much as ever. A SIZE TOO SMALL, MAKES HER OWN CLOTHES, IS FAT, OLD, A FRUMP AND A uussy!” “CAN YOU RIDE HIM, BILL?” “How bo I KNOW, You IDIoT! ASK THE HORSE.” Important ELIEVING that it is bad taste and immodest to allow any of our esteemed contemporaries to get ahead of us in the matter of news from a distance, Lire takes pleasure in printing the following dispatches: Pekin, China: One thousand lead- ing officials of government send greet- ings and congratulations to Lire on the second year of our existence as a Republic, all due to Lirr’s efforts in our behalf—Won Lung, See’y to House in session, Courthaven, N. Tennis cham- pionship of world just decided. -Per- mit me to convey heartfelt thanks to Lire on the successful issue.—Rack- about World Champion. The Hague: Anxiously waiting for :’s consent to open negotiations for peace. Nothing, of course, can be done without your co-operation.—Fo.trotter, clerk, Rome: Repairs to St. Peter's now nearing successful issue, all due to Lire. College of Cardinals sends grateful message—Hamstone. San Francisco: Owing to Lire’s splendid assistance, the Panama Ex- position has turned the tide. Repre- sentatives of ten thousand exhibits send grateful message of hearty ap- preciation.—Fairways, Commissioner.