Life, 1886-12-16 · page 4 of 16
Life — December 16, 1886 — page 4: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Analysis of Life Magazine Page 380 The top illustration depicts a line of animals (appears to be elephants or similar creatures) labeled "By the Way," serving as a decorative header for this satirical commentary page. The left column contains brief satirical verses mocking current events: Cleveland's foreign policy ("backhanded thrusts"), a psychologist's views on love in the Campbell family, a book about tailors, Cleveland's naval proposals regarding Liberia, and Socrates. The right column's main piece, "Concerning Cliques," attacks *Harper's Magazine* and *Century Magazine* for editorial bias—claiming they're controlled by specific cliques of wealthy contributors who exclude working professionals like plumbers and tailors. The author argues these magazines should publish diverse voices, not just established literary figures and King Roswell Smith's associates. The satire targets exclusionary editorial practices and class-based publishing hierarchies of the era.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
OW the shops with men and ladies More crowded are than Hades. Now the small boys try to show What a knack It takes to send some snow Down the back Of the melancholy driver Of a hack. Oh, this is the season we sing of so fly, To history known as: The Sweet Buy and Buy. * * * HE President has appointed Thos. Moonlight governor of Wyoming. Mr. Cleveland is very clever in these little backhanded thrusts at the Suz. * * * DISTINGUISHED psychologist, Sir George Camp- bell, once tried to show that there is no such thing as love. A later generation of the Campbells do much to show that there is a serious lack of that commodity in the Argyle family. * * * A NEW book is entitled “ The Blue Jackets of '61.” A perusal of its pages with an old proverb in mind is convincing that they were not tailor made. We fear the book will not be a social favorite. * * * R. CLEVELAND proposes to give one of our navy vessels to Liberia. This is the first open act of hostility toward the negroes on the part of the administration. * * * NEW YORK publishing house issues a volume of “ Talks with Socrates about Life.” We have not perused it, but our ears begin to tingle, and the blushes mount to our cheeks already. * * * i E was a young maid of N. Y., Just loved to hear herself T, But the maiden was dumb While watching a Drumb- Er eating his soup with a F. * * * SEASONABLE Hint column says that warm soapsuds is one of the best insect. washes. It is well to know this. Insects lose half their unpleasant- ness when they are kept nice and clean. Save your suds. HIS is the season when you must choose between put- ting on style or putting on rubbers. No true swell will hesitate a moment between guffums and pneumonia. * * * HE burning question of the hour: how to buy a two- hundred dollar bronze for ninety-nine cents. * * * CONCERNING CLIQUES. HE accomplished editor of Harper's Magazine tries vainly to refute the charge of an accomplished contrib- utor to a Boston paper, that our magazines are edited in the interests of a clique. Itis an unfortunate fact that the charge is true, and every accomplished editor in christendom put together could not work the germ of truth into a denial of it. Look at the Century Magazine, for instance. If ever any periodical was edited in the interest of a clique, the Century is that periodical. It is an undeniable fact that no contribu- tions other than those of military men, poets, politicians, historians, artists and literary men will be considered by King Roswell Smith I. and his henchmen. The vast hordes of wealth which run into the coffers of the Century Maga- zine, snatched from the nerveless grasp of the toiling masses, go to enrich the happy few who can either write good Eng- lish, draw good pictures, or put a battalion through the manual. We don't believe that the pay-roll of the Century Maga- zine will show that there is one plumber among its contribu- tors. We incline to believe that the editor of Harer’s could not give us the address of a single tailor who contributes to the columns of his magazine. Why, on the face of it, to deny this charge is absurd. How- ever much we may suspect that some of the war articles were written by valiant tailors, can anybody believe that a single poem in the last Harper came from the facile pen of some theatrical ticket speculator ? Can any fair-minded man place his hand on his watch pocket and say he believes a sin- gle line in the last Century to have been written by any but aliterary man? We don’t believe there is one. Why this sacrifice of many honorable professions that a few favored, pampered trades may live, if there is no favoritism displayed by the editors? Because the charge is true. the interests of a clique. It is time that this exclusion of everything but literature from the magazines should be stopped. We, the people, who furnish the wherewithal for publica- tion in monthly installments of 35 cents each, must and shall be heard. Give the plumbers and tailors a chance. Our magazines are edited in Geo. W. Me. comicbooks.com