Life, 1888-06-07 · page 4 of 16
Life — June 7, 1888 — page 4: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# "The English Sparrow" - Cartoon Analysis The main cartoon depicts a man in Victorian dress standing inside what appears to be a cave or hollow structure, looking distressed. The title "THE ENGLISH SPARROW" references the caption below, which identifies him as "Survivor of the Blizzard (a Park Policeman)." The satire mocks the English sparrow (house sparrow) population in American parks, which had become an invasive pest by this era. The cartoon appears to joke that the birds are so numerous and aggressive that a park policeman has been driven to shelter in a cave to escape them—suggesting the sparrow problem had reached absurd, overwhelming proportions in urban areas. This reflects genuine 19th-century American frustration with the unintended consequences of introducing this European species.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
A LOST OPPORTUNITY. RS. CLEVELAND was presented last week with a microscope of 40,000 magnifying power, by a ladies’ temperance society, in recognition of her total abstinence principles, If she had visited New York with the President on Decoration Day and brought that microscope she would have been able to detect the 96,000 different species of ani- malcule that the Board of Health's analysis recently discov- ered to exist in Croton water. * * * R. ADONIS LEGENDRE of this city tried to kill a young woman last week, who had formerly been his fiancée, because she had reconsidered the matter of matrimony. If he is any part of the posterity of the mathe- matical author who has done so much to make early life not worth living, we trust that he may be punished as if his attempted crime had been accomplished. THE ENGLISH SPARROW. Survivor of the Blizzard (to Park Policeman): WHY DON’T You HELP ME DRIVE THOSE SCARLET TANAGERS AND ORIOLES AND YELLOW BIRDS OFF THE GROUNDS? CAN'T YOU SEE THERE AIN'T ENOUGH LEFT OF ME TO DO IT SINGLE HANDED? * * * HILE Mr. Cleveland was participating in the cere- monies of the laying of the corner-stone of the new Catholic University in Washington, Mrs. Cleveland was at- tending the Presbyterian Conference in Philadelphia, and it is hard to tell which was better pleased, the Catholics or the Presbyterians, or whether husband or wife made the more votes. HE Southern Presbyterian General Assembly has rele- gated Darwin to the humiliating insignificance of an exposed pretender; and stamped “The Origin of Species” as mere scientific charlatanry. The Presbytery, led by the Rev. Dr. Smoot, last week recorded itself thus, in Baltimore: “ Now, therefore, it is the judgment of this General Assem- bly that Adam’s body was directly fashioned by Almighty God of the dust of the ground, without any natural animal parentage of any kind. The wisdom of God prompted Him to reveal the fact, while the inscrutable mode of His action therein He has not revealed.” It is very pleasant for men who do not have time to study scientific questions to have a body like the General Assembly look into the matter and decide things for them, and—But, come to look things over, we do not find that there were any men of recognized scientific attainments among the delegates in Baltimore, and we are reasonably sure that Dr. Smoot is not known to students of science. Can it be possible that the Assembly adopted this resolution without investigating the Darwinian theory ? * * * Etrust not. We have no doubt, however, that a great many of the delegates to the Assembly were inclined to ridicule the Rev. Mr. Jasper, of Atlanta, when that eminent theologian put to rout the pretenses of all scientific astrono- mers from the time of Galileo to the present, by his discov- ery that it was the sun that moved while the earth stood still. * * * HEN it is a mistake about Mr. Blaine’s coaching in Scotland—coaching for the Presidency. * * * TOLEDO expressman has been left $30,000 by an old lady. Poor soul! charges. It was probably all she could do to pay his * * * AFTER THE PLAY. RS. BJONES: Well, I think that play was pretty stupid. Mr. BJONES: Oh, I don’t know, my dear. had a good plot and was very well acted. Mrs. BJONES: That part was all well enough, but I didn’t see one single original-looking bonnet in the whole audience. I thought it * * * GENTLEMAN who stood through the whole pro- cession on Decoration Day says we Americans can make a longer procession out of less material than any people on earth, comicbooks.com