Life, 1919-09-18 · page 9 of 48
Life — September 18, 1919 — page 9: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains two cartoons and an article titled "Information" about railroad passes for government officials. The **top cartoon** depicts a man in military uniform (likely a railroad official) speaking to a fashionably dressed woman. The caption reads "A man's a man, you are, but can you be a woman's?" This appears to satirize gender dynamics and possibly questions the man's authority or masculine credibility. The **bottom cartoon** shows a couple in an elegant train car interior. The caption states "Do you believe in long engagements?" with the response "Rather! I believe a couple should be happy as long as possible!" This is a standard romantic humor joke about long engagements delaying marriage. The accompanying article discusses that railroad officials and their families receive free passes, questioning whether this constitutes unfair privilege—a typical Progressive Era critique of corporate corruption and government entanglement.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
“A MAN'S MAN YOU ARE, BUT CAN YOU BE A WoMAN'’s?” “vO YOU BELIEVE IN LONG ENGAGEMENTS “RATHER! I BELIEVE A COUPLE SHOULD BE HAPPY AS LONG AS POSSIBLE!” 487 Intention Street NTENTION STREET is a broad highway, And those who follow it, so they say, Go down and up and up and down, Trying to get to Nowhere Town. Nowhere Town is a station fair On a railway that’s always in the air; None of its trains is scheduled “through”; Stop-over tickets will always do Attention Street is narrow, quite, And its dwellers work with all their might; They feed the sick, the poor they pity, And finally they get to Somewhere City. Winifred Stuart Gibbs. Information 'O those who think that our railroad rates are too high, and that the whole system is more or less corrupt and incompetent, it will be good news to learn that not everybody is suffering from this high cost of travel. There are certain exceptions. According to the Hines report on July 1, 1919, there are one thousand five hundred and ninety wives, daugh- ters, sons and relatives of the United States railroad officials who hold annual all-line railroad passes. Of these, one thousand and ninety-six hold annual all-line Pullman passes. The ladies have by no means been neglected. Among them are thirty- three widows and four mothers-in- law. If you wish to travel free over our government-controlled railroad — sys- tem, the proper way is. to get some relative a job as a United States rail- road official Sad, but True HEN the Evening Post says, “With the terms imposed upon Germany there is no quarrel by any- hody in this country whose opinion and influence are not negligible,” how can one escape painful inferences as to its opinion of the New Republic and the Nation? But, after all, why try to escape them? TER a woman arrives in society she often wants to forget how she got there, comicbooks.com