Life, 1925-04-09 · page 9 of 41
Life — April 9, 1925 — page 9: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This cartoon satirizes late-19th-century religious fervor about moral decline. The caption attributes falling church attendance to "the new bicycle craze," a reference to how bicycles—particularly women's bicycles—were genuinely blamed by some clergy for corrupting youth and encouraging improper behavior (allowing unchaperoned mobility and requiring less restrictive clothing). The image shows a preacher at a pulpit addressing a sparse congregation, visualizing the satirical complaint. Life's point: clergy were out of touch, blaming fashionable new technology rather than examining religion's actual relevance. The "Gay Nineties" title ironically invokes nostalgia while mocking this era's anxieties about modernity and moral panic over bicycles—a concern that seems absurdly quaint to modern readers.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
To Spring (With a Deep Sigh) H! but the freshened smell of turf is clean After the silver rains have bathed the soil. Nature has decked herself with cloak of green; I have resigned my weary Winter's toil. Burgeon now, Spring! Your myriad pennons fly, Scatter the scent of lilacs to the May. Swerve ever Northward, soaring birds, while I Gaze on the empty coalbin and am gay. Gone the last clinker; every speck of ash Settled at last, and soot cleared from cach flue. Silenced a while the ringing shovel’s clash Into the fire door. Furnace, I am through. Sing, all you poets, and rejoice my soul, I need no longer worry over coal. James K. McGuinness. The Greatest “He and She” Joke in the World SBE: Say that you love me. He: I love you. PDVELLINGS dating back to 7000 B. C. have been dis- covered near the shores of Lake Zurich. And, as usual, something was wrong with the hot water in all of them. THE WEATHER FORECASTER PICKS OUT A DAY FOR A HIKE Tracing the Tradition to Its Source “C)H, sir!” exclaimed the cub reporter of the Morning Papyrus (with which the contemporary Munsey had merged the Alexandria Scarab, retaining the best features of both). “Oh, sir! The asp has bitten Cleopatra!” “How many times,” growled the grizzled city editor, “have T got to tell you that that isn’t news? Now, if Cleopatra had bitten the asp——" HW. H. THE GAY NINETIES “THE REVEREND THADDEUS BAWLEM, IN A POWERFUL SERMON YESTERDAY, ATTRIBUTED THE FALLING OFF IN CHURCH AT- TENDANCE TO THE NEW BICYCLE CRAZE,” ETC. comicbooks.com