Life — October 28, 1920 — page 7: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# Analysis of Life Magazine Page: "Autumn" This page features a poem titled "Autumn" by Ethel M. Pomeroy exploring life's transience through autumn imagery—themes of change, death, and loss personified by wind and falling leaves. Below is a satirical cartoon showing a sickbed scene. A doctor stands with family members attending to an ill patient. The caption reads: "Doctor, would it be safe to show father my milliner's bill if I give him his stimulant first?" The joke satirizes both medical practice and domestic finances: the cartoon suggests giving the father alcohol ("stimulant") before revealing expensive millinery bills to cushion the financial shock. It mocks both the era's medical reliance on alcohol and the assumption that wives' spending habits would distress husbands—reflecting early 20th-century gender attitudes toward money and consumption.