Life, 1917-01-18 · page 24 of 40
Life — January 18, 1917 — page 24: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains two distinct pieces of social satire from *Life* magazine. **"The Tale of the Pup"** uses an animal fable to mock economic policy. An ignorant pup chasing his tail becomes a metaphor for wage-price spirals: workers demand higher wages to afford goods, employers raise prices in response, triggering new wage demands in an endless, pointless cycle. The "Intelligent and Rational Human Being" represents supposedly wise policymakers who are actually powerless to break this loop. The satire criticizes the futility of both labor and management in this economic treadmill. **"A Substitute for Whiskers"** humorously observes that young doctors have abandoned facial hair—traditionally worn to appear authoritative—in favor of horn-rimmed spectacles as their new "wisdom prop." The piece gently warns that spectacles alone don't guarantee competence, satirizing how superficial appearance substitutes for genuine expertise among medical professionals. Both pieces target pretense and circular, self-defeating behavior in American society.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
IN ANY GATHERING FIND THF GIRL WHO HAS BEEN TOLD The Tale of the Pup ONCE upon a time an Ignorant and Immature Pup met an Intelligent and Rational Human Being. “Wait a minute,” said the Ignorant and Immature Pup. “T want to show you something.” Thereupon he set to whirling rapidly in a vain effort to catch his tail. “T don’t see that you're getting anywhere,” observed the Intelligent and Rational Human Being, with an air of ponderous wisdom. “Nor I,” agreed the Ignorant and Immature Pup. “That's just the point I wanted to bring out. Now, having established the fact that it is desirable to get somewhere, I want you to observe how similar to this performance of mine is the way you Human Beings act about your wages and prices. You raise the wages of workmen so that they may buy more and then you raise prices so that they can buy less and then you raise wages to reach the prices and then you raise prices in order to offset the wages and——” “Come, come, enough of this nonsense!” expostulated A CLASSIC PROFILE A PERFECT SET OF TEETH BEAUTIFUL. HANDS LOVELY NECK AND SHOULDERS DAINTY ANKLES the Intelligent and Rational Human Being. “ Do you think I'm a fool to stand here talking to an Ignorant and Imma- ture Pup?” Ellis O. Jones. A Substitute for Whiskers 'HISKERS used to be almost indispensable to young doctors. This facial adornment lent them artificial dignity and a premature patriarchality. An important part of every medical education is, and always has been, to teach the neophyte how to look wiser than he is. But if you scrutinize the descendants of Hippocrates as they issue to-day from the halls of learning, you will notice a change. Whiskers have disappeared, and in their place we find those most impressive and wisdom-suggest- ing horn-rimmed spectacles. Of course it would be hardly fair to say: Beware of the young doctor with horn-rimmed spectacles, but it would be eminently fitting to say: Beware of the young doctor with nothing but horn-rimmed spectacles. comicbooks.com