Life, 1891-05-07 · page 6 of 14
Life — May 7, 1891 — page 6: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Analysis of Life Magazine Page 286 **Main Content:** This page contains three satirical pieces targeting social pretension and cultural attitudes of the era. **"A First and Last Effort"** is a humorous poem mocking amateur poets attempting to write love verses—the speaker struggles with rhyme and meter, admitting blank verse failure. **"A Family Disgrace"** shows a dialogue where Mr. Howeljames accuses his son (a Boston novelist) of disgracing the family by writing fiction. The satire targets Victorian attitudes treating novel-writing as disreputable work. **"The Royal Grandsons"** and subsequent anecdotes mock American pretensions regarding European culture and social hierarchy, including a joke about American museums lacking "antiquities." **The cartoons** reinforce themes of social climbing and cultural snobbery typical of Life's satirical focus on Gilded Age American society.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
A FIRST AND LAST EFFORT. LOVE my love so well My love I cannot tell, Though oft I've tried, in prose, | And so I venture rhyme, (That doesn’t rhyme.) I love her merry eyes The color of the skies, Her rippling laugh so sweet, Her golden hair, her dimpling cheeks, And dancing feet. (Too many feet.) She's in my thoughts alway, In night-dreams and in day, I would the hours flew fleeter Toward the moment I shall meet her. (That's wrong metre.) It's hard for me to write— My muse has taken flight; My rhyme is getting worse, I think I'll try blank verse. (No ! —all verse.) LMR. A FAMILY DISGRACE. R. HOWELJAMES: Em- erson, I fear that I have detected you in an untruth. EMERSON HOWELJAMES thanging his head): Yes, father. Mr. HOWELJAMES: Whata disgrace, Emerson! To think that you, the son of a Boston novelist, should be caught tell- Doctor Freshcot: ALLOW ME, PROFESSOR, TO PRESENT TO YOU MY WIFE. ing a story! OPINION ON SUCH A MATTER 18 THEREFORE NOT VALUABLE—HOWEVER, I AM INCLINED TO THE with German opera, OPINION YOU NAVE SECURED A VERY FAIR SPECIMEN, anyhow?” * Talked to death.” THE ROYAL GRANDSONS. “cam Yount: WAN-SPAWEED-B YS His -CRAMOMOTHES HEN the two sons of the Prince of Wales were visiting South America, at a ball (Mve some fine waren? in Rio, Prince George was having a right good time, dancing with any of the pretty girls who took his fancy, irrespective of their social position, and neglecting the local big-wigs. His elder brother remonstrated with him. “You go and sit down and whistle God Save your grandmother and let me alone,” said Prince George, and went on enjoying himself after bi) vn fashion. PPLICANT: Lama Trustee of the Metropolitan Museum. Sr. PETER: I'm very sorry, but you will have to go somewhere else. “Why?” “ This place is not good enough for you.” € E have no antiquities in| America. “You forget the jokes in Life's esteemed contemporaries.” THE INDIAN QUESTION. comicbooks.com