Life — December 5, 1918 — page 47: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This is a humorous comic strip about a man pursuing a rare butterfly ("Colliwopsis Polyglot") for which the Natural History Society offers a $1,000 prize. The joke follows his escalating misadventures: he spots the butterfly, attempts to catch it with a net, but repeatedly encounters obstacles—particularly angry bees protecting their nest. The satire mocks obsessive collectors and the pursuit of scientific specimens, suggesting the "prize" comes at ridiculous cost. Each panel shows the protagonist getting increasingly battered and humiliated in his hunt, with captions providing running commentary on his suffering. The humor relies on slapstick physical comedy typical of early 20th-century magazines: the would-be scientist outmatched by nature, his dignity destroyed for a dubious goal. It's a gentle mockery of academic pretension and specimen-collecting mania popular among natural historians of the era.