Life, 1892-12-22 · page 6 of 16
Life — December 22, 1892 — page 6: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Political Cartoon Analysis: Life Magazine, Page 362 This page contains two satirical pieces critiquing New York police leadership around the early 1900s. **"Two Dollars Worth of Boston"** mocks the cost of long-distance telephone calls (two dollars for five minutes). **"A Knock-Out in Two Rounds"** targets Superintendent Byrnes of the police force. The text criticizes Byrnes for jumping "from vituperation to theology" when debating Police Superintendent Parkhurst about sin and morality. The piece suggests Byrnes's management is ineffective and questions why the *New York Times* calls him an "amateur reformer." The satirist argues Byrnes hasn't actually improved police effectiveness or reduced corruption despite reform rhetoric. The cartoon appears designed to embarrass Byrnes through public ridicule of his contradictions.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
TWO DOLLARS WORTH OF BOSTON. SS A Long Distance Telephone office in New York. Clerk in charge. Enter, a Man ina Hurry. MAN IN A HURRY: Can I telephone to Boston here ? CLERK: Yes, sir. MAN IN A HURRY: How much do you charge ? CLERK: Two dollars for five minutes conversation, Sunday § : Wty po we say Jesus or NazareTH? Thoughtful Roy: JUST AS YOU WOULD say MR. POTTER OF TEXAS OR MR Rarxes or New Yor. A KNOCK-OUT IN TWO ROUNDS. > UPERINTENDENT BYRNES seems to have made a mistake when he THOU 4 NT; THC undertook to have some fun with Dr. Parkhurst. The fun was all there, only it was not on Mr. Byrnes’s side. Mr. Byrnes began the fight, and the result reminds one of the little boy who tickled the hind legs of a mule. The reverend gentleman, while wiping up the floor with the careless superintendent on questions of fact, remarked incidentally : “In his new statement Mr. Byrnes jumps from vituperation to theology. If pos- sible, he is a worse theologian than he is a Police Superintendent. The Gospel requires us to deal leniently with sinners. Mr. Byrnes deals leniently with sin, which is another matter. His business is to make law majestic, and he doesn't. He makes it contemptible ; he plays with infractions of it, and, unless the March Grand Jury was utterly at fault, stands at the head of a department that coins wealth out of the very vices it is constituted to suppress.” Dr. Parkhurst has the best wishes of good citizens who, although they may not always approve of his style of fighting, appreciate his sincerity and the value of his work. He may be surprised that the eminently respectable New York Times should speak of him as an “amateur reformer” and boast that his crusade “has, indeed, angered and annoyed the whole police force, but it has not endangered a single member of it, or even reduced his income.” But let him not be discouraged. He may even find rest and refreshment in guessing at the relations between the Zymes and the Superintendent of Police. As a Gladiator Elasticus (the human snake): Stor moral engine the 7¢mes in this matter is a very successful, joke on itself. THERE! comicbooks.com