Life, 1896-04-16 · page 8 of 20
Life — April 16, 1896 — page 8: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# "Fables for the Times" - Life Magazine Page 308 This satirical page mocks early 20th-century social concerns through several short fables: **"The Old Man, His Son and the Ass"** satirizes public opinion and animal welfare activism. An old man and boy are criticized for riding a donkey, then for the boy riding alone, then for the man riding—they can't win. When they try carrying the ass on a pole instead, it drowns, and they're sued. The moral: you cannot satisfy everyone's contradictory demands. **Other brief fables** target insurance sales tactics, requirements for moral perfection in hiring ("Well Qualified"), and the notion that perseverance always conquers obstacles. The cartoons mock rigid social reformers, oversensitive public critics, and insurance companies—reflecting Progressive Era tensions between various reform movements and practical life.
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Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
and women struggling with serious social con- ditions. Many of their problems are extremely disagreeable, but this is an age of reality. They have grasped the spirit of the age much better in prevailing English fiction. The theory that fiction should only amuse is exploded. American writers must throw themselves into the thick of the fight, even if they get their boots muddy. Our magazines have fostered a certain literary squeamishness in our writers of fiction, But they must emancipate themselves, The brains of the country are in the daily press, and there is more true literature in the graphic reports of our city staff than in the three hundred pages of carefully wrought sentimental tatting that our eminent novelist has put before us in this stupid story. SPRING LAMB, * LIFE: FABLES FOR THE TIMES. THE OLD MAN, HIS SON AND THE ASS, N old man and his little boy were once driving an ass to the market place. ‘* What's the matter with one of you riding?” said a passer-by, So the man put his boy on the ass and they wenton. The next person they met said it was a shame to see’a boy ride while an old man walked. The man lifted the boy off and got on himself. This also excited adverse com- ment, and the man took the boy up behind him, The next critic was a member of the S, P. C. A., and he upbraided them both roundly, saying that they would better carry the ass than he them. Thereupon they tied the ass’s legs to a long pole and carried him between them. While crossing the bridge, into the town, the man stumbled and the ass fell into the water and was drowned. They promptly sued the city for damages, and compro- mised on $263, more than eight times the value of the ass. Immoral: Hard luck cannot touch smooth people. H.W. Phillips. ASX: I represent the Bicycle Union Insurance Company. Will pay you two thousand dollars if you are injured in an accident, and the cost is eight dollars a year. GryMes: But I never ride a wheel. “Then you can't get along without the policy, but the cost will be doubled.” WELL QUALIFIED. ‘STS dis where dey wants a boy.” “‘Itis, but he must be a boy who never utters an untruth and does not use slang or swear.” “Well, me brudder’s a deaf mute. I'll send ‘im ‘round.” ERSEVERANCE overcomes obstacles—that is, unless the obstacles overcome perseverance. | comicbooks.com