Life, 1916-10-05 · page 8 of 42
Life — October 5, 1916 — page 8: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
The cartoon satirizes verbose Congressional speeches. It depicts a man operating a large machine labeled "THE CONGRESSIONAL RECORD" with various components (HYPHEN, VOTE, PORK, HYPHENATED, VACILLATION). The machine produces hot air or steam, while a small figure beside it appears overwhelmed or deflated. The satire targets politicians' tendency to fill official records with unnecessary rhetoric, repetition, and contradictory statements ("vacillation"). The "pork" reference suggests wasteful spending proposals. The enormous machine dwarfing the human figure emphasizes how bloated and unwieldy Congressional speech has become—turning what should be substantive legislative discourse into mere mechanical noise-generation. This reflects Progressive Era frustration with political inefficiency and verbosity.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
-LIFE:. What's in a Noise? WO negro chauffeurs lolled out of their limousines in front of a man- sion in which a reception was being held, “T’se gwine vote fer Gineral Hughes —he shore make a noise like a big man,” observed the blacker of the two. returned the other superior- ly, “yo’ kin put any kind of a honk on any Kind of a coh” NS) THE CONGRESSIONAL RECORD Give the Bible a Chance! wat a pity it is that the Bible cannot be removed from the influence of the church, so that everybody could feel like reading it as if it were a best-seller, The colleges have practically ruined the classics by making the study of them so perfunctory and distasteful that they are rarely read and almost never appreciated by those who have been through college. How many college graduates are there who are re-reading them? From a literary standpoint there is nothing more beau- tiful than the Psalms of David. To have them galloped through Sunday after Sunday by a lot of indifferent peo- ple standing together in a church, or droned out by an adenoid curate, is to rob them of all their power. The Bible is really the best book we have, more inter- esting than the mos: interesting novel, more perfect in its form than any other literary monument, more beautiful than words, more genuinely inspiring than anything else in the world, It is the fountain-head of our English speech In it lies our chief hope of preserving that speech. A SUCCESSFUL congressman is one who can cause a post-office building to rise where only a rural route existed before. The Failures ISCARDED on the bookshop shelves they lie— Uncut, untouched, unwanted and unread— Yet each one holds the ashes of some dead, Close-cherished dream, some hope that once beat high With wistful wonder, some sweet mystery Of mingled joy and grief. What springs have shed Their meed of beauty, and what hearts have bled O'er leaves that stir no reader’s smile or sigh! Still, here and there upon.a faded page’ Dream, hope and labor were not spent in vain, If peace came in the doing, to assuage Despair and doubt, and heart's content attain— And, though they won no tithe of world success, These failed not, since they brought forgetfulness! Charlotte Becker. Does He Really Want To? RO. GIFFORD PINCHOT announces that he cannot vote for Wilson because he cannot trust him. Be a sport, Bro. Gifford! Risk something! Or get Bro. Amos to trust him! Bro. Amos is trustful, and can stand some loss if necessary. But perhaps Bro. Gifford is a Republican inside and does not want to vote for Wilson. IDDIE: Mother, do they read Lire in Heaven? Mater: Don't be silly. Kippie: I’m not. We learned in Sunday School about the Life of the world to come.