Life, 1915-10-28 · page 45 of 52
Life — October 28, 1915 — page 45: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page is primarily **advertising** from a 1916 *Life* magazine, with a brief satirical editorial column. The main "Overdue" column is **dark satire** mocking New York City's competitive desire for major disasters. The author sarcastically suggests that New York should experience a catastrophic accident to rival a previous Chicago steamboat disaster that killed hundreds. He dismisses a recent subway explosion as insufficient tragedy, implying cities compete for notoriety through human suffering. This satirizes American media sensationalism and civic pride taken to absurd extremes. The page otherwise features cruise advertisements, a Beech-Nut sauce ad, and a brief humor piece about affectation. The final section, "The Marriage Yoke," is a historical "joke" explaining slavery's introduction to Virginia through the arrival of English women in 1610—presenting forced labor as a natural consequence of marriage, which reveals the casual racism of early 20th-century *Life* magazine humor.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
ONCE MORE THE CENTER OF THE WORLD MOVES BACK TO AMERICA Overdue I it not time for another big acci- dent, in which several hundreds of lives are sacrificed, and about which the papers come out for several days after- ward with trenchant editorials? The last big accident we had oc- curred, we believe, in Chicago and was about some steamboat. We, naturally, cannot be expected to remember much about it, except that hundreds of peo- ple were killed, and Chicago got the glory. In the meantime, is New York, the largest city in the land, going to let itself be outclassed? It is true that not long ago a half-hearted attempt to blow up an uncompleted subway killed a few odd people; but obviously this sort of thing is too small to count. RAYMOND: WHITCOMB CRUISES, West Indies, Panama, the Central Ameri- can Wonderland and the Spanish Main Tropical Cruises de Luxe of twenty-four days” duration sailing from New York Jan. 29, Feb. 12 and March 11, by the beautiful American sisterships “PASTORES and TENADORES” under the American Flag Remarkable and comprehensive tours to SOUTH AMERICA January 15th, February 2nd, Sth, 16th and 26th, 1916 Weekly Tours to California on the Highest Plane of Travel Send for Booklet desired RAYMOND & WHITCOMB COMPANY 17 Temple Place, Boston New York Chicago Philadelphia San Francisco Aces TRICK Letus cating ‘ond. faire WN yet easy todo. Also berey new Cord Tricks booklets Ilustrating Wy Sent foresee postpatd| THE MAGIC SHOP V44N. D™St Phila, Po. Fish,Oysters, Lobsters, Crabs and Hot and: Cold Meats Beech -Nut Oscar's Sauce I selecting Oscar’s Sauce in preference to other sauces as an accompaniment for steaks, oysters, lobsters, soles, pompano, king fish, shad and other fine fish, epicures recognize just the degree of piquant con- trast necessary to emphasize the flavor of the Sood tself. Oscar’s Sauce is now prepared by the Beech-Nut Company and may be procured from most good provisioners anywhere. Makers of America’s Most Famous Bacon—Beech-Nat Bacon BEECH-NUT PACKING COMPANY CANAJOHARIE, N. Y. 4 10 cents In stamps for the newest, most fascinating gime—"Going to Market™—amasing Sen ‘and instructive and sure to interest the whole fami What we need is a big, stirring dis- aster, a regular holocaust or something equally worth while. Can it be that our tenement buildings are now being inspected so closely as to make another Triangle fire almost impossible or that our railroads have lost heart? “Pa, what is affectation?” “Affectation, my boy, is carrying three extra tres on an automobile that never gets more than four blocks away from a garage.” —Detroit Free Press. The Marriage Yoke The dull boy in the class unexpectedly distinguished himself in a recent history examination. The question ran, “How and when was slavery introduced into America?” To this he replied: “No women had come over to the early Virginia colony. The planters wanted wives to help with the work. In 1610 the London Company sent over a ship: load of girls. The planters gladly mar ried them, and slavery was introduce. into America” —Youth’s Companior comicbooks.com