Life, 1923-01-25 · page 6 of 36
Life — January 25, 1923 — page 6: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains a humorous poem satirizing the medical profession's tendency toward unnecessary consultation and specialization. The verse progressively counts up from one to ten doctors, mocking how each additional physician adds another layer of diagnosis, disagreement, or expensive treatment—culminating in the dark joke that ten doctors conclude you're dead. The accompanying illustration titled "Mrs. Pep's Diary" shows a woman consulting with a doctor, likely representing the social context of early 20th-century medical practice when doctor-shopping and specialist referrals were becoming common. The satire targets both the medical profession's fragmentation into specialties and patients' tendency to seek multiple opinions, suggesting this multiplication of doctors leads to contradictory advice and unnecessary expense rather than better health outcomes.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
January Up and about so much 18th earlier than usual that the day seemed un- wontedly long. Lord! it is hard for me to realize that the majority of our citizens are bending, fully clad, over breakfast tables and news- papers as early as eight o'clock in the morning, sloths like myself being a negligible minority. . To lunch- eon at Kate Mitchell’s, and found her a-sewing on lingerie for herself, and her whipping of lace on such beauti- ful silk did look so fascinating that I brought home with me from a draper’s several yards of material and a bolt of filet, all a-twitter with enthusiasm to begin, albeit Sam asked me if I had ever finished the luncheon cloth I started to embroider several years ago and I had to say, No. .. . In the evening to see “The Clinging Vine,” as merry and intelli- gent a musick piece as ever I saw in my life, with a fine book and lyrics by Miss Zelda Sears. January 19th this and that, and how great a vogue the primitive has come to have in art, albeit there is a good deal of the primitive in our social life which gets no notice soever.... To my bookseller’s this day, and ordered all of Marcel Proust I could get. And Mr. Holliday did ask me if I had come to be able to read Conrad yet, and I said I had not, albeit I am sure the fault lies with me and not with the great Joseph. . . .To call on Miss Marie Doro, the playactress, and she had on so lovely a gown that I ex- Lay late, thinking on claimed with joy at it, whereupon she stood up and said, How now, Mrs. Pep! It is nothing but two or three straight strips of stuff. Yes, I answered, but methinks they were sewed together by nobody less than Vionnet. Nor had they been. And I whipped my lace on silk while we talked of George Moore and radio- activity and the English sense of humor, and Marie did show me the doll which had inspired “Cytherea,” and it really has a look in its eye. . . Mr. Cartwright to dine with us, and he spoke of John Barrymore’s Ham- let, and how he liked all about it save the ghost, wherein he is in ac- cord with most of the criticks. January A letter from Walter 20th Carpenter in the morning post tells me that he has been on the water wagon for three months, which I am glad of, for I had begun to look for his name in the daily alcoholic death list and be somewhat disappointed at not finding it... .Sam and I for a long walk through the town, greatly against my will, for I can- not see the point of walking if you are not going somewhere, but Sam quoth, Well, consider that you are going somewhere, for I will take you to tea at the Plaza, but there was small cheer in that, as we live only five squares from that inn, yet ap- proached it by a five-mile route. . . . At cards all evening and to bed exhausted, after a long, enraging search for my mules, which my ser- vant Virgie had, methought, delib- erately hidden from me. BE: Little Doctors NE little doctor Looks you through and through, Can't diagnose your case; Then there are two. Two little doctors Failing to agree Call a consultation ; Then there are three. Three little doctors Poke you o’er and o’er, Send for a Specialist; Then there. are four. Four little doctors Wonder you're alive, Another brings the stomach pump; Then there are five. Five little doctors Trying fancy tricks Order an anesthetist ; Then there are six. Six little doctors Preparing you for heaven, Call ina D. D.; Then there are seven. Seven little doctors Decide to operate, Call in a surgeon; Then there are eight. Eight little doctors Think it is your spine, Send for a neurologist; Then there are nine. Nine little doctors, All of them men, Send for Nurse Williamson; Then there are ten. Ten little doctors Standing by r bed Come to a decision: Find you are dead. Mnemonic s OW was the memory course?” “Wonderful! Before I started I could scarcely remember my name. Now I can even remember that Ed- die Clark of Springfield, Massachu- setts, is the roque champion of the United States.” siplieg Tuere’s a bright side to every- thing, including last year’s suit of clothes. comicbooks.com