Life, 1893-04-20 · page 7 of 16
Life — April 20, 1893 — page 7: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# "The Result of Literature" Cartoon Analysis This cartoon satirizes the consequences of reading sensational literature. The caption references a "young rascal" who has read lurid stories ("Where are two young divils your confederates?") and apparently absorbed their criminal lessons. The policeman's confrontation with a ragged street child suggests that cheap popular fiction—dime novels and penny dreadfuls—were blamed for corrupting youth and encouraging crime and mischief. This reflects genuine late-19th-century anxiety about mass-market literature's moral influence on children and working-class readers. The cartoon mocks both the literature's sensationalism and society's fear that reading such material caused delinquency—a common moral panic of the era.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
- LIFE: stories. Harry has a personality of his own, but you all have known men having his qualities. And you have known their sisters, also—bright, executive women without a morbid trait in their mental equipment, equal to the emergencies of poverty as well as those of wealth. What Octave Thanet has grasped in her characters is the significant fact that there is a clear strain of refinement in the heterogeneous population of an American town which is catirely independent of wealth or position; Tommy and Mother Emeritus have it, as well as Lossing. In addition, it is well to say that the stories are told with altogether admirable literary skill. Droch. NEW BOOKS. “THE SON. By Paul Bourget. New York: The Waverly Company. Engine Room Chat. By Robert Grimshaw, M. E, New York: Practical Publishing Company. Modern Marriage. By Emile Zola, New York: Benj. R. Tucker. Manners and Rules of Good Society. By a Member of the Aristocracy. London and New York? Frederick Warne and Company. Children of Destiny. By Molly Elliot Seawell. New York: D. Appleton and Company. The Eloping Angels, Company. Gerfaut. By Charles de Barnard. Chicago: Laird and Lee. Ai. By Charles Daniel, Philadelphia: Miller Publication Company. The Shadows of the Lake. By Frank Leyton. London and New York: Longmans, Green and Company. Island Nights’ Entertainments. By Robert Louis Stevenson. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. a Mistress: Branican. By Jules Verne. New York: Cassell Publishing Company. The Novel. F. Marion Crawford. New York: Macmillan and Com- William Watson. New York: Macmillan and THE RESULT OF LITERATURE. Policeman: SO, ¥€Z YOUNG RASCAL, I'VE GOT YEZ AT LAST, Have 1? WHERE ARE TWO YOUNG DIVILS YOUR CONFEDERATES ? Nickel Jimmy (who has read deeply): WHEN pip 4 PEQuop EVER BETRAY HIS RED-SKINNED BROTHER? Do YOU TAKE ME FUR A MINGO? MY SCALP MAY BE FOUND A HANGIN’ TO THE BELT O° THE PALE FACE, AN’ MY TONGUE BE SPLITTED BY HIS KNIFE, BUT A OATH BINDS ME TO MY TRIBE, AND I WILL NOT BERTRAY THEM. IF THE GREAT MANITOU WISHES IT, I KIN DIF AT SUNRISE, BUT MY OATH I WILL KEEP; IT 1S REGISTER-R-RED above! REVENGE, Hunter: By Jove, Jim! ITs our TURN NOW, ONE OF THOSE BISCUITS YOU MADE THIS MORNING. HE's EATEN MIXED. HE had read the advertisements. In the papers o'er and o'er, But had gotten somewhat muddled As to what cach thing was for. So when she had a bilious turn, She took some Pyle’s Pearline ; She scrubbed the floor with Sozodont, But could not get it clean. And for a torpid liver She took Sapolio, And put Castoria in the cake ; She got them muddled so. Jay Kaye. GOOD OUT OF EVIL. es HIS ought to be a prosperous month,” said the Club Treasurer. “ How so?” asked the Secretary. “House cleaning,” was the answer; ‘and the men'll all be here,” ORRESTER: What is love, anyway ? LANCASTER: Don't ask me, Forrester. it has been a long time since I was married, You know 67S he wealthy ?” “He must be. | just heard him tell a poor lame fellow that he had given his last dollar toa blind man. A poor man wouldn't give away his last dollar, you know. comicbooks.com