Life, 1885-09-17 · page 4 of 16
Life — September 17, 1885 — page 4: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Analysis This page contains brief satirical commentary rather than a political cartoon. The items mock various contemporary figures and issues: - A poem mocks locusts and war profiteering, likely referencing WWI-era concerns - Mrs. Spriggins's interest in a "concussion" between the *Genezia* and *Portella* (appears to reference a naval incident) - Criticism of Treasurer Jordan's report on five-dollar bills being scarce - Commentary on Mr. Gladstone's fall from power, mentioning Queen O'Guelph and India policy - References to a Shakespeare's "Tempest" production that failed due to seasickness - Notes on telegraph wire burial and Montreal financial troubles The satire targets political incompetence, naval mishaps, and contemporary absurdities. Without clearer historical context for specific names and incidents, precise dating and identification remain uncertain, though the content suggests early 20th-century American satirical commentary.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
ON THE RESUMPTION OF HEAT. EAR the locusts in the trees, How they loke, Foretelling lack of breeze, And invoke 5 Old Sol to make it hotter For the folks abroad who totter On the burning terra-cotter.* 'T is a joke For such as he, When he’s arméd cap-a-pie With an ulsterette so cooling, That ‘tis ne'er too hot for fooling O’er the lea. © Sprigginese for firma. . . . N its base-ball items the Zémes says: “Last year the Metropolitans won the championship and came out $15,000 behind. This year they are last in the race, but have a balance on the right side of the ledger. We have a suspicion that it frequently costs more to win a base-ball championship than to lose it. . . . T was a veteran of the war of 1812 who remarked that he liked to read the 7rtéune because it reminded him of his youth. * . » ARCHIBALD FORBES says that Russian songs are full of snap and verve. Indeed they are, and consonants, too. A Russian comic song is even funnier to look at than to hear. . . . N attempt to revive Shakespeare's “Tempest” failed recently, owing to the fact that the whole company got so sea-sick in the first act that they were unable to continue. . . . NE thing is certain, The telegraph wires or the small boys with kites must go. . If the telegraph companies won't bury their wires the boys should be made to fly their kites underground. * . ° ETWEEN the small-pox and American financiers Mon- treal is having a hard time of it. . . + M** ANDERSON has purchased a governorship in the Shakespeare Memorial Association for £100. We offer the hint to Mr. Flower for what it is worth. RS.SPRIGGINS states that she is very much interested in “this concussion as to who was to blame for the corrosion between the Genesta and Puritan.” . . * HE new comet, it is said, will soon go into Bootes, The first thing we know they ‘Il be putting it in Pants, and its only two weeks old. . . . Tt JORDAN reports the supply of five- dollar bills to be very small. We fail to see that this state of affairs is original with the present Administration. Any unreformed ward politician could make a report of this kind and not be suspected of wandering from facts. . . . ULL accounts of the Queen’s Cup race will appear in the Philadelphia papers next spring. Special carrier bottles containing latest news of the race will be dispatched from both the contesting vessels, and the Jersey coast has been lined with messenger boys to get them and carry their contents to the offices of the syndicate on Chestnut street. Who says that enterprise is an unknown quantity in Phila- delphia ? . . . HE true cause of Mr. Gladstone's fall was his desire to do something big for the crown, after the order of D'Israeli’s India feat. The Queen was to be crowned O’Guelph, King of Erin and Empress of Tipperary, but she declined to add this to her Royal autograph unless Parliament would give her £30,000 more a year for ink. Of course the matter was dropped, and Gladstone with it. . . . HE number of Hill delegates chosen to date show a disposition on the part of the Democrats to “ kindly omit Flowers. . . . INCE the arrival of the five copies of European cholera in the World office we have been anxiously waiting the announcement that our contemporaries circulation has doubled up. . . . . F the gentleman who sent in the alleged joke on the Puritan and his fowl-ing piece will call at this office he will find a first-class funeral at his disposal. . . . R. RANDOLPH CHURCHILL is saj_ to be pros- trated and to have cancelled all hic engagements to | speak. We trust this brilliant young man hasn't what is here known as the Hoadly Malaria.