Life, 1916-09-28 · page 29 of 41
Life — September 28, 1916 — page 29: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This Life magazine page satirizes early 20th-century public health resistance, particularly around polio prevention. The headline "Great Americans" mockingly presents "Princess Parranoya" (a pun on "paranoia")—a fabricated aristocratic figure representing the paranoid citizens of Oyster Bay, Long Island. The main satire targets the community's refusal to accept medical quarantine measures for infantile paralysis (polio), dismissing the disease as merely "teething and summer complaints." The text quotes their resolution denying the epidemic's reality and opposing "intriguing propaganda of certain so called medical and scientific men." The piece criticizes this anti-expert stance, sarcastically noting that if other communities followed Oyster Bay's example of rejecting public health interventions, society would descend into chaos where "experts" couldn't protect citizens. The satire suggests the resistance stems from irrational fear and distrust of scientific authority rather than legitimate concerns. The secondary sections—on wealthy philanthropists funding health initiatives and brief humorous observations—fill the remaining page space.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
GREAT AMERICANS PRINCESS PARRANOYA, FORMERLY COUNTESS DE GENERITT, FORMERLY BARONESS LOONI, NEE HIGGS At Oyster Bay HE citizens of Oyster Bay, Long Island, recently rose up en rasse and declared they had rights. Truly an astonishing stand, in an age where our citizens can be drowned in cold blood by foreign powers. Oyster Bay declared that it was not to be buncoed intc a belief that the recent infant paralysis “epidemic” was more than a medical bugaboo. It refused to have its liberties restrained “through the intriguing propaganda of certain so called medical and scientific men.” (We quote from a resolution drawn up by a committee of its lead- ing citizens.) The arbitrary and forcible removal of children from their homes to isolation hospitals when they were actually suffering from nothing but tecthing and summer complaints, 545 ‘al of “medico-political bar- for private gain,” the uncon- stitutional outrage perpetrated by of- ficers of the law—all these things have stirred mightily the citizens of Oyster Bay. Here is a further extract from the resolutions drawn up at a mass meeting recently held: Through the inspiration and in- centive which a great endowment offers to most ambitious men, John D. Rockefeller and Mr. Carnegie, actuated by a desire to return a small measure of good for the mil- lions which they extorted from the common people, have seen fit to set aside from their unearned increment a stupendous fund which no microbe, germ, bacilli or even an honorable physician could overlook have Suppose that other communities, in- spired by Oyster Bay's example, should go and do likewise. Where would the thing end? In course of time we might become a free people; a people refusing to be scared by “experts” who terrorize innocent victims in or- der to start panics when business is dull. Kitchenette Philosophy “IN ancient times, and even in times recalled by some of us who are be- coming slightly ancient, man regarded largeness as a requisite in a wife,” said the Man Who Disclaimed Cynicism. “He sought as his mate a woman who was broad of hip, that she might bear him lusty children; deep of breast, that she might nurse them properly; strong of back, that she might help him in heavy tasks. +“ Nowadays,” added the M. W D C, “he seeks a woman who is small enough to fit into a modern apart- ment.” Worth the Effort OSEPHINE (eight years old): But if we pray the Lord for a limousine He may at least send us a flivver—it's worth trying, anyway! HE CANARY: Well, I certainly prefer a big muzzle like mine to a little one like Fido's.