Life, 1883-01-18 · page 10 of 16
Life — January 18, 1883 — page 10: what you’re looking at
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# Political Satire: "The Father and the S—n" This is a satirical dialogue about Reconstruction-era politics, using vowel-deletion to obscure identities while remaining recognizable to contemporary readers. **Key figures identified through the blanks:** - **R-th-rf-rd B. H-y-s**: Rutherford B. Hayes (Republican presidential candidate) - **Gr-nt**: Ulysses S. Grant (sitting president) - **S-n**: The Sun (a newspaper, likely the New York Sun) - **T-Id-n**: Samuel Tilden (Democratic candidate) - **R-g-rs**: Rogers; **R-ch-rd Sm-th**: Richard Smith; **Ch-Ids**: Childs **The joke:** Life ridicules *The Sun* newspaper for its contradictory coverage—praising Republican figures with "faint praise and half-way jibe" while Hayes causes political indigestion. The "Father" (presumably representing reason or the reader) questions why *The Sun* endorses these politicians so tepidly. The satire mocks the newspaper's equivocal stance on the 1876 presidential election and Reconstruction politics.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
- LIFE: And who is R-th-rf-rd B. H-y-s? Who seems to set as ill Upon the stomach of the S-n As tho’ he was a pill, Which, often swallowed, still comes up, . And is not sugar-cased, But in the S-n’s mouth daily leaves A disagreeable taste. ~itesN. = cams, THE FATHER AND THE S—N. AN IMPENETRABLE MYSTERY. Say, Father, who is General Gr-nt ? Whatever did he do To make the S-n allude to him As though he was too-too ? Has he by crimes brought on himself That H-y-s, my son, is he who was All good men’s hate and scorn, By fraud and sinful guile Or has he sometime stepped upon With S. J. T-Id-n’s cloak endued, Somebody's tender corn? And wore it for a while. Men thought.that in such garb he might For a reformer pass ; But when he let his voice be heard He showed—what kind of a hairpin he was. But, Father, who is R-g-rs? Who My son, Ul-ss-s S-mps-n Gr-nt Is Deacon R-ch-rd Sm-th, Fought wisely in the war, And got enormous recompense, 5 And was he truly good, with bad And wanted to get more. Bold partners—or a myth ? In the White House eight years he lived ; And who is Ch-Ids, A.M., the Bard, He wished to live there twelve ; Grief's Quaker City scribe ? The S-n esteemed it to be time Why lauds the S-n these men with such Ul-ss-s G. to shelve. Faint praise and half-way jibe? comicbooks.com