Life, 1896-09-24 · page 8 of 20
Life — September 24, 1896 — page 8: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Analysis This page contains three satirical pieces from *Life* magazine (page 230): 1. **"A Misdirection of Goodness"** (top left): An editorial arguing that Sunday golf should be legal. It criticizes authorities in Englewood, New Jersey who arrested a golfer, arguing that golf is morally equivalent to other Sunday activities like bicycle riding—not inherently sinful. 2. **"The Coming Man"** (bottom left): A sketch showing a man telling a woman "Tell her I'll be right down's"—likely satirizing the perpetually absent suitor or the changing social dynamics of courtship. 3. **"The Absent One"** (right): An illustrated poem about a woman waiting for someone who never arrives, accompanied by melancholic nature imagery (turning leaves, frogs, birds). The page reflects early 20th-century debates over Sunday observance laws and changing social norms.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
*LIFE: A MISDIRECTION OF GOODNESS. ERTAIN enthusiastic guardians of the law at Englewood, New Jersey, have arrested and fined a gentleman for playing golf on Sunday. They have made a mistake and public opinion will not sustain their action. Golf isnot a game, but an exercise of a somewhat penitential flavor and not irreligious in its con- stituent qualiti Persons who play it hard during the weck need the day of rest for the restoration of their strength and equanimity, and persons who do not play on week-days will hardly get enough golf on Sundays alone to make them per- manently subject to its baleful fascina- tions. Compared with bicycle riding, golf is a pious labor. Any system of law or ethics which prohibits Sunday golf, while permitting Sunday bicycles, discrimi- nates without sense and cannot stand the strain of practical use. THE COMING MAN. “TELL HER ULL BE RIGHT DOWN,” THE ABSENT ONE. cometh not,” she said, What more was there to say? The leaves were turning red, She rocked the hour away. The frogs came at her call; ‘The birds toward her sped. And yet, in spite of all “ He cometh not,” she said. MEDITATIONS. the ardent isectionist to from his labors and review the arguments with which next winter he will refute and put to shame the med- dling sentimentalists who will try to bind down his lofty flights of scientific experimentation by strictive legislation. re- He can think up strik- Lee ing methods of stating the impressive fact that, in <2 medicine, nothing but secing is believing, and so, though every text book sets forth the results of most of the class-room experiments, and though drawings and diagrams and models can be secured to illustrate every detail of 2 comicbooks.com