Life, 1915-05-20 · page 7 of 44
Life — May 20, 1915 — page 7: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
**Main Cartoon ("Is There Enough of It for All?"):** The illustration shows figures climbing a ladder toward a glowing sun labeled "LIFE," with a large tree in the distance. It satirizes optimism about food distribution and wealth. The accompanying text argues that optimism belongs primarily to the poor—who accept hardship without complaint—rather than the wealthy, and suggests true optimism comes from necessity and struggle rather than privilege. **Secondary Content:** A brief comedic exchange ("Literal Obedience") between characters Vander and Asterwall jokes about a limousine being repeatedly repainted in neutral colors, then red, white, and blue—likely mocking indecision or bureaucratic absurdity. The "Materialistic?" section features a Sunday-school lesson with an "Optimistic Pup" photograph about accepting loss philosophically.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Is There Enough of It for All? Materialistic ? GTATISUCIANS tell us the supply of food is ample SUNDAY-SCHOOL TEACHER: Now, children, re- for all the inhabitants of the earth, if it were but member the golden text—* The Lord gave and the properly distributed. Is this, we wonder, true of optimism? Lord hath taken away.” One of the great troubles with the food problem is the Littte Girt (in a stand-pat Republican family) : labor of preparation and distribution. Isn't this also the our house, teacher. It’s the tariff that did it great trouble with optimism? Optimism appears to belong exclusively to the poor, who not only accept it unreservedly as their own, but use it more constantly than any other class. The rich and the abnormally intelligent dissect it and destroy it in handling. Being naturally suspicious and overcritical, it disintegrates before their eyes. Optimism is essentially democratic. It is an atmosphere which prevails over low areas. It is the best asset of want. Optimism was born of Hope out of Tribulation. The rich pretend to be on easy terms with it. “Iam an optimist,” says Lucullus, with a forced smile, to conceal his inward despair. The man who lives with his family on two dollars a day is the true optimist. His optimism is born of necessit It is not a vain thing. It abideth perennially, It pro- ccedeth not from logic, but from struggle. It is the essence of health and sanity. The millennium will come when optimism is free for all—the upper as well as the lower. Literal Obedience VANDER: I thought your limousine was painted? ASTERWALL: It was, but it has to be painted again. F: 1 ordered it to be finished in neutral colors, and the idiotic workmen painted it red, white and blue. Blnwoon Optimistic Pup: Wet, | WON'T LOSE MUCH, ANYWAY comicbooks.com