Life, 1891-11-12 · page 13 of 15
Life — November 12, 1891 — page 13: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Life Magazine Page 281 Analysis This page contains social commentary on American theatrical tastes and entertainment culture, circa late 19th century. **Upper cartoon**: Depicts a woman presenting a parrot to another woman, with the caption suggesting the parrot has been "trained" to speak well. This satirizes superficial gift-giving and pretense among the wealthy. **Main article**: Critiques American audiences' obsession with moral virtue in performers. The text attacks the popularity of Mr. and Mrs. Kendal—described as "ordinary" talents whose appeal rests entirely on their reputation for marital fidelity and moral respectability, not artistic merit. Life contrasts this with Sarah Bernhardt's superior talent but lower status due to her "naughty" personal life. The piece mocks Boston critics who rejected *La Tosca* for lacking moral instruction, arguing Americans confuse entertainment with moral instruction. **Lower cartoon**: Depicts African American characters (in period dialect) discussing a pastor's successful weather prediction—which succeeds only because he coincidentally chose the date of the church picnic, when rain would naturally cancel it. Satirizes false prophets and superstitious thinking.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
- LIFE - “How opp oF MR. E: The Parrot: Nov at WORD FOR HIM. NT TO MAKE ME A PRESENT OF A PARROT ALL! HE'S TRAINED ME TO SPEAK A GooD RS. ARTHUR DACRE, who was in New York, last Winter, and is now Miss Ellen Terry's understudy, has recently achieved a success at Liverpool, which created consider- able comment Owing to Miss Terry's i!lness, she was called upon, at short notice, to play Lady Macbeth, and her rendering of this ditficult appears to have been a thrilling and triumph- ant event. This will cause no surprise to those Ameri cans who are familiar with this lady's act- ing. character * * . HAT Mr. and Mrs. Kendal should like America is easily understood. It is safe to assert there is no other country in the world where the theatre-going public get their intellects and morals so hopelessly mixed. Mrs. Kendal is above all a virtuous woman; Mr. Kendal is a faithful husband, and the combination seems to excite many of 281 our countrymen to the wildest enthusiasm. The fact that Mrs. Kendal is a woman of very ordinary abilities, and that her well-meaning spouse possesses even milder claims to distinction, is of little weight with this class, and apparently detracts nothing from their enjoyment of the performance. What they want is a moral show, and they get it. A good representative of these audiences is the Boston critic who objected to La Tosca because it points no moral. From this standard of criticism Mrs. Kendal is the greatest actress of her age, and Sarah Bernhardt, the naughty girl, has no position whatever. All of which, artistic- ally considered, is very sad and discouraging. LIFE has no hard wishes for this worthy couple: he only regrets the want of discrimination among certain of his countrymen, SGINS AT THE FOOT OF THE LADDER.—The hod carrier. MSCS THAT SPIRIT OF DOUBT. Deacon Roseberry: 1 TELL YO", BRER'’ PERKINS, DAT PAWSON OB OURS IS'R MIGHTY FINE WEDDER PROPHET. DERE HADN'T BIN ANY RAIN IN OUR COUNTY FO" 4 FO! WEEK, AN’ DE PEOPLE WAS GETTIN’ DESPRET. OUR PAWSON, SEZ HE, "CHIL'N, DON'T GET ‘SCOURAGED, DERE WILL RE RAIN ON DE TWENTY-FUST." AN’ SURE 'NOUGH IT DID RAIN ON DAT DAY FO! OLL IT WUZ WoRF, Brother Perkins: Dat’s sureis’, He KNEW DAT WUZ DE DAY SET FO’ DE SUNDAY-SCHOOL PICNIC. comicbooks.com