Life — October 21, 1920 — page 1: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# "A Sporting Chance" - Life Magazine, October 21, 1920 This cartoon depicts two hunters fishing beneath a sign reading "NO FISHING / NO HUNTING / BEWARE OF THE BULL." The humor hinges on the contradiction between the warning and the sportsmen's apparent willingness to ignore it—they're pursuing their hobby despite explicit prohibition. The title "A Sporting Chance" plays on the phrase's double meaning: it refers both to hunting/fishing as sports and to the risky gamble these men are taking by trespassing on private property where a bull poses a physical threat. This satirizes the conflict between working-class recreation (fishing and hunting) and property owners' attempts to restrict access to land. The "sporting chance" is that the hunters might escape before encountering the dangerous bull—a commentary on class tensions and rural land access circa 1920.