Life, 1893-10-26 · page 12 of 16
Life — October 26, 1893 — page 12: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Analysis for Modern Readers This page reviews playwright Edward Harrigan's plays about contemporary New York life. The critic praises Harrigan's realistic depictions of immigrant communities—Irish, Jews, Italians, Germans, and Black Americans—becoming "Americanized," calling these works valuable historical documents of cultural assimilation. However, the critic makes a backhanded complaint: Harrigan has supposedly *omitted* "the real American," found only as wooden cigar-store Indians in New York. This racist joke mocks Native Americans as non-people or relics. The review also suggests Harrigan compromised artistic truth in his play "The Woollen Stocking" by softening portrayals of Hebrew (Jewish) characters to avoid offending wealthy Jewish patrons—implying Harrigan prioritized Jewish audience sensibilities over authentic representation. The accompanying cartoons and cricket-match illustration appear decorative rather than directly connected to the text's arguments.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
MR. HARRIGAN’S LATEST. $ studies of contemporary New York life, Mr. Harrigan’s plays are always worthy of notice. Some centuries from now, when there is no more immigration to furnish new examples of foreigners becoming Americanized, and when there has occurred that amalgama- tion of types and races which is to make the American of the Future, these stage works, if they could have faithful reproductions, would give our descendants a vivid idea of Reading from the Weekly Terror: AND WITH A BLOOD- CURDLING YELL THE SAVAGE SPRANG UPON THE GRIZZLY—— what to them would seem a most re- markable state of affairs. The jumb- ling of Irish, Jews, Italians, Ger- mans and Negroes, would give the future Irish - Hebrew - Italian-Ger- man - African - Ameri- can a picturesque no- tion of his beginnings. ‘The only factor which seems to have escaped Mr. Harrigan is the real American, but as he is to be found in New York only carved in wood and standing in front of cigar stores, it is not strange that he has not been used as a source of Mr, Harrigan’s inspiration. In * The Woollen Stocking,” the author does not seem to have been as happy in the selection of his types as in his former produc- tions, It may be that he has sacrificed truth to a fear of hurting the sensibilities of his He- brew patrons that has made him, in a way, A CRICKET MATCH. idealize the Hester comicbooks.com