Life, 1890-03-20 · page 12 of 18
Life — March 20, 1890 — page 12: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Analysis This page satirizes **romantic poetry and pretentious poets**. The two manuscript comparison exposes hypocrisy: The **First Manuscript** presents a poet railing against modern materialism and fashion, praising simple "Arcadian" living and claiming he wouldn't choose gold even if offered. The **Second Manuscript** immediately undercuts this—it's a bill from a tailor showing the same poet owes significant money ($322 total) for expensive clothing: dress vests, dinner coat, lounging jacket, and silk pajamas. The tailor demands immediate payment, noting the account "has been running too long already." The joke: the poet condemns wealth and fashion while spending lavishly on fine garments. His lofty ideals about simplicity clash hilariously with his actual consumer habits. The accompanying editorial about the Metropolitan Museum advocates opening it on Sundays so working-class New Yorkers can visit—a separate social critique about public access and class.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Two MANUSCRIPTS, (Found on A poet's Desk) yo Lon FIRST MANUSCRIFT, H, unromantic age! I must Hurl down to you a poet's curse. I view with loathing and disgust Your worship vile of mode and purse Oh, that the days might come once more When all men simple tuaics wore, And wealth and fashion could ignore! If some kind god to me shall grant (As Bacchus did to Midas once) A wish to gratify, I shan’t Choose gold like that poor simple dunce. For me, the sweetest boon would be In every land and clime to see Arcadian simplicity. A, de Mf, SECOND MANUSCRIPT. Mr, Algernon de Muyster, To SNIPSON, CUT To 2 Dress vests a 4 Dinner coat - 1 Lounging jacket - 6 Suits pajamas (silk) - "ER & SNIPSON, Dr. $80.00 68.00 32.00 142.00 $322.00 Please remit at once, as your account has been running too long already. SCES. Edward Boltwood. J F the too, too good trustees of the Metropolitan Museum of Art wish to broaden their knowJedge of human life, they can easily accomplish it. It is only necessary for them to travel a few hundred feet off their usual beat to discover how the working people of this city pass their Sundays. The most hasty inspection would probably be a revelation to them, and if their personal piety is of a sufficiently mal- leable nature it might cause them to think seriously of open- ing the doors of the Museum on that day. If the Museum is for the public, open it to the public, and open it on the day when the public can see it. comicbooks.com