Life, 1896-04-02 · page 10 of 32
Life — April 2, 1896 — page 10: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Analysis of Life Magazine Page 258 This page contains three satirical cartoons and accompanying commentary on American seriousness and humor. **"On April First"** (top left): A man kicks another, claiming he's "forgotten his old trick / Of a brick inside a hat." The joke relies on April Fools' Day pranks. **"The Artificial Man and the Savage"** (top right): A Native American figure confronts a formally-dressed man. The caption "Now, wait till you see me scare this savage" suggests ironic commentary on stereotypes and colonial attitudes. **"From This Time On I Shall Believe in Ghosts"** (bottom): A woman tells her husband she believes in ghosts because his "widow" has been comforting him all evening—implying marital infidelity through supernatural jest. The article criticizes excessive American solemnity, arguing wit and humor are undervalued tools for serious purposes.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
*LIFE- THE ARTIFICIAL MAN AND THE SAVAGE. ON APRIL FIRST. ID he kick me? Well—I rather think His language rather indicated that He'd quite forgotten this old trick Of a brick inside a hat. And do I smile? Well, just because I take it as a sign That other hats along the street Contain less brains than mine. ON SOLEMNITY THAT THINKS ITSELF SERIOUSNESS. AMALIEL BRADFORD, Jr., in a little volume of thoughtful and well-expressed essays which he calls ** Types of American Character" (Macmillan), has with con- siderable solemnity expressed his views on the American ae man of letters, Among many statements that we are A Story with a Moral. inclined to believe measurably true, he asserts that ‘‘ we are “Now, WAIT TILL YOU SEE ME SCARE THIS SAVAGE.” too serious ; we take ourselves too seriously, our vices and — our virtues too seriously, life too seriously.” This assertion facts of life in the great republic as they appear from day to has a plausible sound but it does not seem to accord with the day. It is neither true of the American man of letters nor of . affairs. There is a great difference between solemnity (which is often the mask of ignor- ance) and seriousness. Wit, humor, and vi- vacity often go hand in hand with the greatest seriousness ; indeed they are frequently its most efficient handmaidens. For what Mr. Bradford means by his assertion is not gravity of manner but grav- ity of purpose. Now there are no weapons that can be more skillfully used to advance a serious purpose than wit and humor. . * . O far do we believe Mr. Brad. ford's statement to be from the facts, that we fear a trained ob- server would rather say that the national shortcoming at the present day is a lack of seriousness as to our vices, our virtues, and life in general. Newspapers play with the most weighty responsibilities, legisla- tors and rulers are a national jest, college men are afraid to be thought studious, and great corporations hood- wink their constituents and deceive the Government. There is little hy- pocrisy in all these things ; the atti- tude is rather the cynical one of ” “What are you going to do about ‘FROM THIS TIME ON I SHALL BELIEVE IN GHOSTS. it?” To put it in the vernacular— Wuy so? “*You KNOW THAT ‘WIDOWER’ WHO HAS BEEN DEVOTING HIMSELF TO ME ALL THE EVENING 2°" 4 WELL, HIS{DEAD W APPEARED JUST NOW AND TOOK HIM HOME. in it to win. this is a great big game and we are comicbooks.com