Life, 1885-05-14 · page 4 of 16
Life — May 14, 1885 — page 4: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Analysis This page from *Life* magazine contains satirical commentary and poetry rather than political cartoons. Key content includes: **"To Spring Poets"** — A humorous poem mocking verbose spring poetry and struggling poets who produce lengthy, pretentious work without success. **"Information Wanted"** — A note about purchasing rights to a horse-related poem, satirizing American commercial culture's commodification of literary work. **Various brief satirical items** about contemporary figures: references to Polish immigrants forming associations, England's military situation, Charles O'Connor's criticism, Ellen Terry's husbands, and Henrietta Burdensick's lighthouse-building success. The humor relies on wordplay, irony, and topical references rather than visual imagery. The overall tone is light satirical commentary on contemporary American society, politics, and culture typical of *Life*'s editorial voice during this era.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
TO SPRING POETS. HE sun now shines upon the lea— The sun frequently does ; We listen to the merry skee- Ter buzz. We hear a step upon the stair! That step! alas, we know it; For it belongs to the auburn hair- Ed poet. He 's got a poem columns long About the vernal spring, We seize our iron-pointed prong And sing (The poet, meanwhile, unawares) Unto the purp to sic-him, As down the long, cold-hearted stairs We kick him. The poet's progress is so flect He doesn’t know just what's Impelled him so, till in the street He squats, MORAL, When suns are shining o'er the lea, And buzzing is the skeet, The springers of spring poetree Had best stay in the street. * . . NUMBER of Poles who fought for freedom when Kosciusko did n’t fall, have formed an association here in New York. We suggest as an appropriate name “ The Sons of Liberty- Poles Association.” . . » NGLAND'S evident disinclination to pitch into her | Moscovite foe gives the war a phase of Russia blood | to the head. . * . “ CHARLES O'CONOR'’S bust,” says the World, When w7// these explosions cease? . . * EWS comes to us of the death of one of Ellen Terry's husbands. This makes the fair Ellen almost as many widows as the Prince of Wales is Colonels. * * . ES, Henrietta, as a builder of light-houses Buddensieck is a glittering success. A N exchange remarks that one-third of all{the banking done in the world is done in England. This may be true, but since the incarceration of Fish and the emigration of Eno, the United States has n't had half a chance, We are willing to back these two men against the universe for the Bank Doing Championship. * * * INFORMATION WANTED. ORRESPONDENT wants to know if a forty year old horse may be called a horse chestnut. He should consult Mr. Dana, the chestnut authority of the age. . . . UNITED STATES pickle corporation has purchased the American advertiser's right to Baron Tennyson's recent poem, Its first verse is to read : CHOW CHOW! If you have failed to eat The pepp'riest pickle of the day You deserve to have the wild mob’s million feet Kick you to your groceray. And make you buy some ! * . . ANSWER TO CORRESPONDENT. “oN ps HAM-LET. ONCERNING the above conception of Hamlet, which appeared recently in our columns, a Shakespearian student writes to ask whether we believe he came from Shake- speare’s Pen. Decidedly, no, The cut itself should convince our corres- pondent that our conception of Ham-let is derived directly from Bacon. . . . OLLOWING close upon the election of Messrs. Rusk and Bunn to Governorships, is the award of $1,000 to Prof. Waffles for a prize essay. If we do not degenerate into a dyspeptic nation with such elements in our midst, we are badly at fault in our diagnostics. . . * 73 EN. BUTLER homely,” quoth Mrs. Spriggins ; “ wal . if he is he was the connoiscur of all eyes, tenny rate, down there to that ere trial!” comicbooks.com