Life — January 12, 1922 — page 5: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# Analysis The main illustration shows a rural farm scene with a man operating a mule-drawn cart, depicting working-class agricultural life. The caption uses dialect humor: "Foh de lan's sake, Pete, what yo' call dis rig?" / "Dat's mah mule Tumult, an' dis heah is ma safety-first sulky." This satirizes the "safety-first" industrial movement popular in early 20th-century America—a workplace safety campaign that became widespread corporate messaging. The joke mocks applying this modern, urban safety rhetoric to rural farming with a mule and cart, suggesting the gap between industrial workplace concerns and rural life. The accompanying article "Both Sides of the Footlights" by Dorothy Parker discusses theatrical life and gossip, unrelated to the cartoon.