Life, 1921-01-06 · page 15 of 44
Life — January 6, 1921 — page 15: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
The main illustration depicts a courtroom scene where a lawyer cross-examines a witness about a miraculous injury claim. The lawyer uses absurdist logic, asking the witness to imagine increasingly improbable survival scenarios—falling from a ten-story building, surviving once, then surviving a second time uninjured—to suggest that claiming a "miracle" is unreasonable. The satire targets both overzealous lawyers using sophistry in court and perhaps insurance fraud claims relying on "miraculous" survival stories. The humor lies in the lawyer's deliberately circular reasoning: if survival isn't miraculous the first time, why would it be the second? The page also includes poetry excerpts and a brief item about a "Superman" and a charity fundraiser, typical of Life's mixed editorial format.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
HAVE A HEART! we I AEF CAG NTLEMEN, 1 APPEAL TO YOUR TENDERNESS, TO YOUR LOVE OF HOME, TO YOUR INNATE RE NT, TO YOUR BROAD HUMANITY, TO THAT LOFTY IDEALISM WHICH LIFTS MAN ABOVE THE BRUTE BEAST AND MAKES HIM THE WONDER AND PARAGON OF ALL THE AGES.” Echo from Lesbos F she be fair, Give her my love and duty; li she be truly fair, Give her my love. Sweet and delicate and rare, At the end of a wind-blown, bough The apple swings: If I, who fly no more, had wings, Or if my wizardry knew how, I'd wing to where that sweetness swings At the end of the bough. James Stephens. ‘ A bas the Critics “\YJHAT makes you think polo is a bet- ter game than golf?” “The bystanders know so little about it that they can't talk.” fragrant No Use THE lawyer for the prosecution, in cross-cxamination, was trying to make the witness admit that there was such a thing as a miracle. “Let us suppose that you were on the top of a ten-story building,” he began. “Now let us suppose, further, that you fell from the top of this building upon the pavement in the street below and suf- fered no injury whatever. Wouldn't that be a miracle?” . Sir; that would merely be an acci- dent,” stated the witness. The lawyer smiled. “ Possibly so,” he admitted. “But let us suppose that you fell from the top of this ten-story build- ing a second time, and for a second time were uninjured. Would you not then term it a miracle?” “No, sir,” the witness replied unhesi- tatingly. “That would be merely a coin- cidence.” The lawyer was a bit nonplussed, but determined to try again. fell a third time and were again unin- jured. That would surely be a miracle!” “No, sir,” insisted the witness. “I'd call it a habit then!” “Suppose you A Superman trouble with Binks is, he has no moral courage.” “Nonsense! Why, the other night he positively refused to play poker with a social reformer and the feminine man- agers of a charity bazaar.” ‘HE WINNERS in Lire’s Great Title Contest will be announced in our next isshe. One thousand dollars in prizes will be distributed. See next week’s Lire. comicbooks.com