Life, 1915-09-09 · page 27 of 44
Life — September 9, 1915 — page 27: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains two distinct satirical pieces: **The Main Cartoon** (upper left) depicts a crowded urban street scene with a woman speaking to a man named James. Her remark—"You are too severe, James. Even the suffragette is one of God's screechers"—mocks both his criticism and the women's suffrage movement. The "screechers" reference was a common derogatory term for suffragettes, portraying them as loud, unpleasant agitators. The cartoon satirizes contemporary dismissal of women's rights advocates. **"All Serene" (lower right)** is a fictional dialogue satirizing Prohibition enforcement. "Madam Prohibition" orders her agents to insult foreign diplomats and force them to drink grape-juice instead of wine, while she secretly enjoys a highball and cigarettes. This mocks the hypocrisy and zealotry of Prohibition supporters who imposed strict rules on others while violating them privately—a common complaint during the Prohibition era (1920-1933). Both pieces use satire to critique social reform movements the magazine viewed as sanctimonious and excessive.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
She: You Ake Too SEVERE, JAMES. EVEN THE SUFFRAGETTE 1S ONE OF GOD'S SCREECHERS in the book) and two younger girls, each in her own way self-sceking and thought- less—is written with finish and aimed at honest representation of life. But the subject matter has been so frequently handled, and the writer in so far fails cither to penetrate beneath the conse- quent triteress in her material or to make of the situation a story moving for the sake of its own action, that the result is undistinguished. Scekers for diversion will be but mildly rewarded by it, while students of the essential femi- nine can find better text-books. PEAKING of text-books, Barrett H. Clark’s outlines for the study of “British and American Drama of To- day” (Holt, $1.60) is full of suggestion and help for the only sort of students 475 worth much, the self-helpful with from sixteen It deals one to four plays each by five Irish American playwrights; mingling specific analysi general critical comment with suggestive queries and hints for cross-reference reading. It gives a list of published plays and a bibliography of critical references for each author, And it contains additional notes on the work of fourteen other American writers. There is nothing of the self-constituted authority laying down the law about Mr. Clark’s work. His book is an in- centive to independent thinking, a whet- stone to sharpen one’s wits on. English, and nine and R. MORTON PRINCE, one of the recognized American authorities on abnormal psychology, seems, to judge by a book of his just published and called “The Psychology of the Kaiser” (Badger, 60 cents), to have succumbed to one of the prevailing diseases bred by the war—inflammation of the spleen. The gist of the book is a labored proof. pre- sented in the technical terms of the author's profession, of a ante-bellum fact- “ big-head dan equ planation of Williar the German Social Democrats as a phobia based on their designs against his auto- cratic prerogatives. Of the new slowly emerging figure of historical proportions and of a united nation’s hero-worship it takes no cognizance. In fact, the hand but the voice J.B. Kerfoot. © undisputed he Kaiser's case of ly labored ex- antagonism to is the hand of Science, Hatred’s voice. All Serene ADAM PROHIBITION called her chief manager and said: “Ts my small army of fanatics keep- ing up their morale?” “Yes, madam.” “Have orders been given that all our foreign guests, including ambassadors, ministers and high plenipotentiaries, who are accustomed to wine upon their tables, shall be duly insulted and forced to drink grape-juice?” “Yes, madam.” “Have you duly advised and in- structed my representatives, hoth men and women, that they make themselves as offensive as possible to must everybody?” “T have, madam.” “Then pull down the blinds, detach the front-door bell and bring me a highball and a package of cigarettes.” comicbooks.com