Life — June 26, 1919 — page 10: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This page contains two cartoons addressing **Prohibition-era concerns**. **Top cartoon:** Depicts a skeletal "Death" figure seated with various demons labeled with vices (cocaine, hashish, ether, etc.) swarming around. The caption "And the last state of that man is worse than the first" suggests that while prohibition aimed to eliminate alcohol, it instead created worse drug problems. **Bottom cartoon ("The Boomerang"):** A doctor tells a dying man's wife that whiskey is the only thing that will save her husband's life, but prohibition prevents its use. This satirizes the paradox that alcohol was legally prohibited while simultaneously recognized as medically necessary—highlighting prohibition's practical failures and unintended consequences for public health. Both cartoons critique Prohibition's ineffectiveness.