Life, 1920-02-05 · page 18 of 52
Life — February 5, 1920 — page 18: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page satirizes **Sir Oliver Lodge**, a real British physicist and spiritualist who visited America during World War I. The article criticizes his claims about communicating with the dead—suggesting he believes the deceased are "talking back to us" daily, not just occasionally across generations. The cartoon below depicts a wealthy woman at a social gathering, distressed that her footman has abandoned her, leaving no one to open her limousine door. The satire connects Lodge's grand metaphysical theories to the mundane concerns of the upper class: while Lodge discusses atomic energy and psychical communication with the dead, the elite are preoccupied with servant shortages and social inconvenience. The joke mocks both Lodge's spiritualist pretensions and the self-absorbed priorities of the wealthy during wartime—trivial domestic crises versus genuine human concerns.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
“LI FE Sir Oliver Lodge K have had no lack of visitors of distinction and renown since Europe's predicament brought us Jofire and Balfour came; Cardinal Mercier ; Albert and his Queen; the Prince of Wales, and But not a visitor in into special notice. Lord Reading and Lord Grey; King lately Maeterlinek, and many others. all the list made a visit that is more likely to be important than that of Sir Oliver Lodge, or brought a message of more vital interest to us and all the world. For Sir Oliver thinks the dead are talking back to us, hot on rare occasions generations apart, but every day, now about per- id there, to this one, to that one; al matters, again more rarely about the very greatest here rns of men and nations anything like that is true, nothing else touches it in If it is true in such volume that it cannot be the interest. hidden, it is sure to touch minds and opinions of enough people to affect the public policies of the w People say this is the opening of a new era. Signs are proper for such crises in human life and tory. Oliver says the of his errands here is to te next of kin to it, is to discuss certain matters rela tokens are forthcoming now, and about them. The other err physics, and possible resulting enlargement of the coi hy man of natural forces. one nid, trol Sir Oliver is a distinguished man of science; a first-r physicist. In that line he will discuss the ether of and the structure of the atom. His sentiments about and the atom are almost as extraordinary as his c« tions about communic: with the dead. He think that as knowledge of the properties of ether nln bel will supersede coal as the source of power in futur creased we shall understand better the processes of psychical communication. Atomic energy he “ MY DEAR, 1 DON’T KNOW WHAT WE'RE COM ABSOLUTELY NO ONE TO OPE JO. MY FOOTMAN HAS LEFT ME, AND I HAVE THE LOOK OF MY LIMOUSINE seen comicbooks.com