Life — April 27, 1922 — page 13: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This cartoon depicts a horse standing in a rural landscape while an airplane flies overhead and a person with an umbrella sits in what appears to be an early motorized vehicle. The title "The Last Horse" suggests anxieties about technological obsolescence during the early aviation and automobile era (likely early 20th century). The satire contrasts traditional transportation—the horse—with modern innovations: the airplane and automobile. The horse appears isolated and anachronistic, surrounded by these new technologies. This reflects period concerns about industrialization rendering traditional forms of transport, labor, and rural life obsolete. The cartoon likely resonated with contemporary debates about progress, technology's social impact, and nostalgia for pre-industrial ways of life.