Life, 1915-12-30 · page 9 of 41
Life — December 30, 1915 — page 9: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This illustration shows a group of well-dressed people gathered on what appears to be a viewing platform at a horse racing venue. The caption identifies specific individuals by name, including "Mr. Bughouse Todd, driver" and several women with unusual names like "Miss Tireless Tchattor" and "Miss Gladys Pinhead." The humor lies in the satirical naming: these absurdist character names mock the pretentious social scene at the races. Rather than depicting actual recognizable figures, Life's cartoonist created fictional but ridiculous personas to ridicule the frivolous, overdressed society crowd attending such events. The exaggerated formal dress and the silly nomenclature together suggest mockery of upper-class leisure culture during the World War I era (1916, based on page numbering).
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
SEEN AT THE RACES Reading from lefi MRS. J. WURZEN YUCELISS; M to right: MR. BUGHOUSE Topo, TIRELISS TCHATTOR ; MISS NICOTINA DAZE-DOPE ; LITTLE- DRIVER 5 MISS GLADYS PINHEDD; MR. MANNERS; MR, SEVERNPERCENT PYNCHER AND MRS, BILLY MUCHINPRINT. a Great Peace with real underpinning and such provisions for the development of human life as the nations have been Not mere paper provisions; something hased something fighting for. in justice, and durable; something automati that will work, Nothing like that can come till the time is ripe and the nations—enough of them—are ready. But the times are ripening now, ripening fast, fast, fast; and the more of the European peoples get into the war the more the ripening is accelerated, and the more the possibilities of a lasting readjustment are extended. The force back of an arbitrator need not be armies— at least not Ais armies. It may be necessity; the consent of nations facing destruction and compelled to trust some- one or perish, e As for our country in 1916, the winter wheat is in the ground, and no doubt there will be crops, but in politics and in business what happens here is closely linked with what happens in Europe. Business has been immensely stimulated by sales to the Allies, but how long can they pay, and when they get to the bottom of the stocking, what then? One hears that at present there is hardly a loose stone in Europe that would not be thrown at us if we were near enough to hit. We are the fat neutral whom nobody loves Shall we be more despised in 1916 than we are now, or is Europe's present mood toward us a transitory humor that will shift overnight? Are we really to spend much money for armament and armies, or only to talk about it? Is Mr. Wilson to be his own successor, and, if not, who will succeed him? Car- ranza the solution for Mexico, and, if not, will Mexico's troubles or Europe's reach their solution first? We ought to know a great deal more history at the end of 1916 than we do at its beginning, but we can’t tell what we shall learn. In natural course we will get in the crops and elect a President, but there are political and interna- tional crops to come in that we can’t tell much about, be- cause we are not sure what we have sown. The Bust HE bust has been favorably known from time imme- morial, It is common to pedestals, autos, and some financial experts. It can be obtained at any saloon, Every country during a panic either has one or comes near it. comicbooks.com