Life, 1895-04-04 · page 5 of 18
Life — April 4, 1895 — page 5: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Analysis of Life Magazine Page 213 This page contains two distinct pieces: **"In the Borderland"** (top): A dramatic illustration accompanying a theatrical piece or poem about a romantic night scene. The surreal artwork features stylized figures in an exotic landscape with musical and mystical elements. The dialogue between "He" and "She" suggests courtship or seduction, with the woman repeatedly asking him to continue singing or speaking. **"A Mean Trick"** (bottom): A brief humorous anecdote about someone named Bagley, illustrated with a simple sketch. The joke concerns Bagley paying someone ten shillings he owed, "right before my tailor"—implying the tailor witnessed payment, making Bagley appear solvent when he may not be. The humor relies on the irony of deliberately creating a false impression of creditworthiness.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
IN THE BORDERLAND. (4 Drama of the Coming School.) A tropical night—yellow. A moonbeam, cold as a bone. Clouds like continents. A terrace. A settee of wrought steel, A woman tn a hat. A youth with a face like a desert full of air, E (resuming a lute): Listen. (Sings in a voice like a tinkling cymbal). Your lips are like the vines of night, Like tortured ivies, twisted tight, Like tangled cels that turn and twine, Like trampled mess of eglantine, Beneath your hat They're just like that. SHE (sobdéngly): But your hair! Your hair! Your hair! My hair! Ah, ah—Hully— : Whose fault is it? His! Himmel—his‘n! I'm symbolized. Is he dead ? Is it better to be dead — : He lives—lives. You avenged, Is it better to have hair like that or to be dead? It is better to be— What is one more reason for the heathen to be happy ? 213 ‘They miss such nights as ours—such talks—such Listen. Again? Ah Listen. (Resuming a lute, sings.) ‘The bigger bugs look for their pickin’s ; The murdered ones shriek like the Dickens ! ‘The mortified moon, A skull-white balloon, Swoops over some little dead chickens. Is not the night like that ? SHE: Oh yes, the night is quite like that! That's the sort of a night it is. But the others do not tinkle. HE (waving his chin): Listen. It is like that. It is like that. Itis like that. Here’ssome more. (7he moon with- draws.) SHE: You goon—on. Ah! I could——. Again? HE: Listen. (Sings.) The muskiness thickens and thickens, The stagger-bat dizzies and sickens, Soft, supple and slight, The jewelish night Sees little boys getting their lickin's. And I—oh—ah ! I thought I had known trouble ! Listen, I will sing on—on. SHE: You wll. (Falls screaming upon the settee.) HE: Listen. (Resuming a lute.) Hush. SHE (springing to her feet with one hand and stifling a sob with the other): More like that ? HE: Listen. (Falls writhing upon the terrace.) SHE: Listen, Hush. (She stands over him waving the Settee.) CURTAIN. ANCIENT. ISS REDBUD: Mr. Quilter said he wrote a joke about you and sent it to one of the papers. PENSTOCK: Was it acceptéd ? ReEprup: No. The editor said the subject was A MEAN TRICK. as HAT Bagley is a chump.” “Why so?” “He paid me ten he owed me, right before my tailor.” SOMETHING QUEURIOUS. comicbooks.com