Life, 1890-03-06 · page 9 of 16
Life — March 6, 1890 — page 9: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# "The Modern Pied Piper" by A. Osman Smith **The Cartoon:** A pied piper leads a long procession of children through city streets. The accompanying poem laments that fashionable society has abandoned traditional child-rearing, leaving children in the care of nannies and governesses who instill poor values ("sashes and flowing curls"). The satirist wishes a "modern pied piper of famous Hamelin town" would lead away these poorly-raised children. **The Satire:** This attacks turn-of-the-century upper-class parenting practices—specifically the outsourcing of child-rearing to servants rather than parents taking direct responsibility. The reference to Hamelin's legendary pied piper (who led children away) suggests these children are essentially already "lost." **Below:** A separate item mocks the Metropolitan Museum closing Sundays to working people, and another quips about bachelor millionaires as "bargains in trousers."
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
LIFE AcMedentied YY, Gilm MAY be out of fashion, but it sometimes seems to me That the very best procession my longing eyes could see Would be headed by the piper of famous Hamelin town, Who through our city streets shouk! go, a-piping up and down, ? Till he lured from out the multitude of With bonnets all too big for them, and laughing girls and boys trousers much too tight, All the silly little Greenaways and Prigeish MEP With sashes and with flowing curls—and Fauntleroys, y led them out of sight, . t And left with us such sensible and sturdy girls and boys As lived before those Greenaways and priggish Fauntleroys. TELL US. Ww’ should the Metropolitan Museum of Art be closed to the working people on Sunday? If there be a good reason, where is it? No one has ever heard it. The “proper observance of the Sabbath” is the nearest approach to one, and that will not stand on its own legs. If it is wrong for poor people to look at paintings and statuary on that day it is certainly wrong for them to stroll about the streets, to study the animals in the Park, and to envy the occupants of the carriages as they roll up and down the avenue. That the twelfth-century piety of a very small body of men should stand be- tween such a museum and the very class who need it most of all others is an affront upon the public sense. Open your eyes, you who are doing this! Rub them a little, if necessary, and take LiFe’s word for it that the chances of salvation for your souls will suffer no injury if you have a little more regard for those less fortunate than yourself. N°? Beatrice, L1FE does not think that all bachelor millionaires can be classed as “ Bargains in Trousers.” comicbooks.com