Life — January 8, 1925 — page 9: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# "The Jay Walker's Dream" This is a comic strip titled "The Jay Walker's Dream" satirizing reckless pedestrians in early 20th-century urban traffic. The protagonist appears to be a distracted or careless pedestrian ("jay walker"—slang for someone crossing streets illegally or unsafely). The strip depicts a nightmarish sequence where the character is repeatedly struck by or narrowly avoids a large automobile tire. The progression shows the tire growing larger and more menacing as the dream intensifies, culminating in a chaotic final panel where the character questions whether they can "give you a lift, neighbor?" The satire targets both pedestrian negligence and the anxieties Americans felt about the new dangers posed by automobiles in urban environments. The "dream" device allows dark humor about traffic accidents.