Life, 1884-02-07 · page 10 of 16
Life — February 7, 1884 — page 10: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Analysis of Life Magazine Page 80 ## Main Cartoon: "Over-Education" This satirical piece mocks the modern practice of overstimulating children with simultaneous instruction. Young Horace is taught prayers by one aunt and a popular song by another simultaneously, resulting in his bedtime prayer hilariously mixing the two: he adds "But for goodness' sake don't say I told you"—the song lyric intruding into sacred words. The joke critiques late-19th-century parental/educational excess, suggesting that divided attention produces absurd, corrupted results. ## Minor Items The page includes witty one-liners (definitions of "a man of means," "the mourning star") and satirical observations on contemporary life, including a jab at proposals for a north-pole expedition. ## N.Y. Section A serious critique of wealthy New York's failure to fund the Statue of Liberty pedestal, reprinting Canadian and Boston newspaper condemnations of American "cynicism and ingratitude" toward France's gift. The piece argues Americans' wealth and vulgarity are now globally infamous.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
LIFE: TT Ha Y OUNG Roger de Coverly Green Loveda maiden of blushing sixteen ; No wonder she blushed, By mendacity crushed, She was born in 1813. Now Roger is reckoned a sage, For she died, did his bride of old age ; And she left him a pile, Which her Pa made in “ ile, And her parrot preserved in a cage. But Roger was taught to believe That a nice girl could never deceive ; Caught first in her mesh, He declared her quite fresh, And vowed he would unto her cleave. OVER-EDUCATION. “THE danger of trying to teach young children more than one thing at a time was re- cently illustrated by little Horace whose Aunt Jane was endeavoring to teach him his prayers, while another aunt was teaching him a popular song; with the result that at night Horace prayed : “« Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep ; If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take. “But for goodness’ sake do n't say I told you.’” “« E’en tho’ it be.” She spread her bread with oleomargar She oiled her nose with vasel She fixed her hair with bandol She fried her cakes in butter She filled her lamp with keros Exit Carol A MAN of means.—The moderate man. THE mourning star.—The actor who has lost his popularity. Tue Government intends sending out an- other north-polar expedition, to consist of one man in a tub with a broomstick for a propeller. There will be no supplemental orders. | “We never speak as we pass by.” We have exchanged cooks. “Sroen kisses sweetest are” is a favorite song in Flushing, L. I. ARTHUR DoveEty (presenting his girl @ plate and fifty cards on her birthday): “After you have used the cards you can | have some more struck off. The plate ought to last you all your life!” ASTRONOMICAL STUDY FROM “THE AVERAGE Man,” Cuap. V: “She (Isa- bel) sat with her eyes on her lap, and fingered thoughtfully the roses in her bouquet. She carried but one now (eye?) ; the other had been long since consigned to the table as too handsome.” ]F the citizens of this city cannot spare the money for a pedestal to the Bartholdi statue it is cer- tainly time for an appeal to the country at large. If that fails we can try England. We already have a world-wide reputation for wealth and vulgarity, and a general passing around of the hat would lend an air of humility that might do much toward improving our good name. Asacity we have no good name to lose, and Public Spirit is not our besetting sin. Neither are we over sensitive, but it requires a thick hide to ignore the impression we are making in this affair. The fol- lowing extract from a Montreal paper was reprinted in the Boston Transcript and needs no comment : A disgusting spectacle is this rich people too mean and too ill-bred to conduct themselves with common decency on such an occasion. Americans even carry their cynicism and ingratitude so far that they do not hesitate to jeer at their benefactress, One of their journals declares that “this affair is somewhat ridiculous, and that the statue, if put up, might not satisfy the artistic taste of the country.” And so France has simply rendered herself ridiculous in the eyes of these people, who are largely in- debted to her for the foundation of their country, because she has offered them a present! And they have the indecency to criti- cise the gift itself, which ‘‘may not satisfy the artistic taste of the country.” comicbooks.com