Life — June 19, 1919 — page 10: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# Colonel Bacon This page contains a biographical sketch titled "Colonel Bacon" alongside a cartoon. The illustration shows an elderly man in a wheelchair speaking with three well-dressed gentlemen outside a house, while a young child stands nearby. The caption quotes the centennarian: "Yes, I've drank an' smoked an' did as I dang pleased for a hundred years, an' that's more'n you young fellers'll ever git a chanst t' say!" The satire mocks turn-of-the-century health concerns and moral anxieties. The cartoon presents a long-lived man who openly defied contemporary rules about temperance and virtue, suggesting these restrictions may be unnecessary—or at least that living a "sinful" life doesn't guarantee early death. This challenges the era's moralizing about proper behavior and longevity.