Life, 1918-10-03 · page 9 of 34
Life — October 3, 1918 — page 9: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
**Top Cartoon**: Depicts a woman (Liberty, based on her classical dress) with a man attempting to obstruct her view of billboards. The caption states he "insists on taking his faux with him to obscure the view of bill-boards, which, he says, 'spoils our scenery.'" This satirizes concerns about billboard advertising cluttering American landscapes—a Progressive Era debate about commercial visual pollution versus natural aesthetics. **Bottom Cartoon**: Titled "A Gasless Sunday," shows a pedestrian enjoying highway travel without automobiles for the first time in years. This references wartime fuel rationing (likely WWI era), satirizing the irony that gas rationing produced an unexpected benefit: cleaner roads and safer pedestrian access. Both cartoons mock contemporary American anxieties through absurdist humor.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
HERR SCHMITT, WHO IS FOND OF WALKING, INSISTS ON TAKING HIS FRAU WITH HIM TO OBSCURE THE VIEW OF RILL-BOARDS, WHICH, HE SAYS, “SPOILS DEK SCENERY” A GASLESS SUNDAY FOK THE FIRST TIME IN YEARS THE PEDESTRIAN GETS A CHANCE AT THE HIGHWAY Exceptional Haste O fiction could be more interesting than the real stories of the admir able exploits of the Pennsylvania state police that Katherine Mayo tells in her latest book, “The Standard Bearers” (Houghton Mifflin), Miss Mayo was largely instrumental in securing the New York Legislature's adoption of the law establishing in New York a similar law protecting the rt population from criminals. When Miss Mayo told the Hon. Elihu Root that the bill had been passed by both houses and signed by the Governor, all in less than two years, he was mightily sur prised, “L have always believed,” he said, “that it took the New York Legisla- ture at least fourteen years to pass a good law,” emphasizing the “ good.” 'OTICE to D n Second-Hand Clothing: The Kaiser has sixty- seven uniforms. comicbooks.com