Life, 1926-07-15 · page 12 of 37
Life — July 15, 1926 — page 12: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This cartoon depicts a man (labeled "Mr. Suburbs, the bookkeeper") frantically calling his wife about a bank robbery. He's panicked that bandits have stolen fifty thousand dollars in cash and securities from the First National Bank, and worries the back door of his home isn't locked. The sketch satirizes middle-class anxiety during the 1890s about crime and property security. The contrast between the massive bank heist and the suburban homeowner's petty concern about his own back door illustrates how ordinary people's worries about theft trickled down from major crimes to minor household security. The accompanying illustration shows a chaotic street scene typical of period crime-scene imagery.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Life \ aps vpn Wy pee THE GAY NIGHTIES The Alarm Tantrav: Mr. Suburbs, the is speaking over the “HENRIETTA! Ts that you? 1 thought I'd call you ‘up and tell you—the First National Bank has just been held up by bandits. Yes, two auto-loads of them. bookkeeper, wildly excited, phone to his wife. - They say they got away with over fifty thousand’ dollars in cash and securities. ... Yes, terrible!... You'd better sce that the back door is locked.” Golfer in Background: wo 1s THAT WITH MRS. MURRAY? “LT DON’T KNOW} BUT IT MIGHT BE HER SISTER—SHE HAS THE SAME KIND OP y— 9 | Rhymed Reviews Microbe Hunters By Paul de Kruif. Harcourt, Brace & Co OW let us praise in’ rhythmic +% tropes Those nimrods draped in shrouds, or like robes, Who armed themselves with micro- scopes And bravely stalked ferocious wi- crobes ! What hordes of tiny thingumjigs Have died before those dauntless hunters As well as rabbits, guinea pigs And other grunters ! squealers, — barkers, First came the Dutehman, Leeuwen: hock, spied — the wretches; ‘Then Spallanzani took a look And wrote their biographic sketches. Who hasty little Pasteur discovered how they slew; He made their habitat his play- ring And learned to foil them; so did Roux, Paul Ehrlich, Robert Behring. Koch and And Metchnikoff, who sat up nights To bully starfish wet and ch Revealed the real nice phagocytes Wot et opp all de bad bacilli. Then Smith and Bruce and Walter Reed And Ross and vetoes Rossi put their On fever-bugs that sow their sced Through tsetses, ticks and gray mosquitocs. The book portrays in vivid terms To us untaught mosquito-slappers The supermen who snared the germs, Those valiant animalcule-trappers. I hope that while the fashion holds Some hardy scientist arises And tames the imp that gives us colds, And he can have my share of prizes. Arthur Guiterman. comicbooks.com