Life, 1893-10-05 · page 10 of 16
Life — October 5, 1893 — page 10: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Analysis of Life Magazine Page 218 This page contains several cartoon vignettes and literary excerpts rather than a single political cartoon. The sketches depict everyday domestic scenes: children at a fence, people in various comedic situations. The captions employ gentle humor about social conventions—one reads "Can't git yer head out, Jimsy? Hold on, as yer will ye troo," suggesting physical comedy involving stuck heads. The text discusses drama in America, lamenting the absence of great native playwrights and noting that talented artists come from abroad. It references specific railroad engineers (Knapp, Young) resisting bandits, suggesting contemporary news events. The final section shows social encounters, including a meeting between "Trotter" characters at a Liberal Arts Building, employing ironic commentary on chance meetings and social propriety rather than explicit political satire.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
218 CONSOLATION. N OW, as the brown leaves softly fall And ‘round about the pavement swirl, In memory sweet do I recall My summer girl. ‘Their wedding bells ring merrily — I envy not her wealthy churl, She never was, and ne'er can be, His summer girl ! CMM. IT'S A POOR RULE THAT WON'T WORK EITHER WAY. A FRAGMENT FROM THE “GRAND CIRCUIT. “As they swung into the stretch, Betsy B, lost her feet and made a bad break. The superb reinsmanship displayed by her driver in this heat was worthy of Dud Boble himself.” f Ae arrival in America Xf cas of M. Coquelin and Ee . BERS Al Mme. Hading, following : that of Mr. Irving and ! Miss Terry, suggests . some rather sombre c _ _ thoughts about the prom- ZZ ise of the drama in this country. The fact that the only great artists available come from abroad is proof evident that we have none of our own, Worse than this, there seems to be no present or remote “CAN'T GIT YER HEAD out, Jiusy? Prospect of anything great in a dramatic way coming out of this country. Hol! oN, AN’ WEILL PULL YE TROO.” Of mediocrity we have more than an abundant supply. We pay our enter- tainers so well that even mediocrity is sure of a generous reward, and it may be that this emasculates ambition and accounts for the fact we notice. It may be that our newness as a people, our climatic conditions, our hustling tendencies work against the development of artistic temperament. Better than these reasons per- haps is the absence of a really critical public. We are too easily pleased, and for that pleasure reward too generously even to spur moderate ability on to the constant work, study and training which turns it into genius. If, by our disapproval, we drove bad and careless actors from the stage, if we did not shower money on those of moderate talents, we might hope some day to see our professional people strug- gling for the reward which should be given only to the great artist. T" must be a profound discouragement to train robbers to run against such men as Engineer Knapp of the Lake Shore, and Engineer Young and his comrades of the Illinois Central. The whole country is under obligations to these brave and faithful railroad men for their courageous resistance to bandits. es WENT over to Philadelphia to-day,” “Did you? Why, ! thought you had been there once before.” Wj A feds a RIPP (on meeting Trotter for the third time in the Liberal Arts Building): Hello, Trotter, here you are again. Now if you were someone I wanted to BUT THEY DIDN'T, meet, I dare say I should never run across you! comicbooks.com