Life, 1896-05-28 · page 11 of 28
Life — May 28, 1896 — page 11: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Life Magazine Page 431: "Coming" and Humor This page contains a poem titled "Coming" by W.J. Lampton celebrating the arrival of spring—personified as a fairy-winged woman emerging from nature. The illustration shows this romanticized seasonal figure. Below are two separate humor pieces: **"Waited Too Long"** depicts a domestic scene where a woman borrowed her friend's novels but delayed returning them. The joke plays on social etiquette around borrowed items. **The final joke** contrasts gender perspectives on marriage customs: when a woman mentions fathers plant trees upon each daughter's marriage, the man suggests planting a *house* instead—implying wives need homes more than decorative trees, a practical critique of romantic sentimentality. The page represents typical early-20th-century Life magazine humor: light satire on social conventions, domesticity, and courtship customs.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Fast and far-off, hear the murmur Of an angel's flutt'ring wings ; Faint and far-off, hear the charmer As her siren song she sings. She is coming, Hear the humming Of the faintly fluttering wings. Pink and white, the eager mountain Tops, expectant, stand and wait ; Silver sands at Neptune's fountain, Tremble lest she should be late. Eager mountain, ‘Trembling fountain, Expectant of ber coming, wait. Budding roses hold their blooming Till her coming, and they furl The fragrant flags of their perfuming Till she starts the season’s whirl. Hear the humming Of the coming Of the same old summer girl. W, J. Lampton, *¢] WAS around to your place last night and took the lib- erty of borrowing some of those new novels of yours.” “That's all right. I only wish you had come around before I read them.” HE man who originated serials must have been an author who was looking for some way to keep women from reading the last chapter of his novel first. HE: Every time one of us girls gets married father NN MARINER ( —f6- ‘plants a tree on his estate. He: A much better plan would be for him to plant a house there. “IT NATURALLY FOLLOWS,” comicbooks.com