Life, 1897-01-07 · page 7 of 20
Life — January 7, 1897 — page 7: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Analysis of Life Magazine Page 7 This page contains two distinct pieces: 1. **"The King of Boyville"** - A brief editorial discussing Mr. White's Kansas stories, praising them as comedic yet ultimately redemptive tales of boyhood hardship. 2. **"The Night After Christmas"** - A humorous poem by P. Familias about a doctor's chaotic Christmas visit to treat sick children. The accompanying sketch shows a woman holding a feverish child. The satirical point targets the romanticization of poverty and hardship in popular literature. While praising White's ability to find romance in crude Kansas conditions, the editor notes this works only when the author himself isn't "sloshing around among the Populists"—a jab at political involvement tainting literary merit. The Christmas poem mocks the contrast between holiday sentiment and harsh medical reality.
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Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
thing in all real life is the suppressed and dwarfed affections of gentle beings environed by crude conditions and adverse circumstances that they cannot master. He also sces, with true cye, that the light of faithful affection often makes what from the outside seems repellant commonplace, a very dream of romance. If the despair of Kansas is in Mr. White's stories, so also is the aggressive hopefulness and good sense that will ultimately be its salvation. * . * HE gem of the collection is not *LIFE-: boyhood. The boy who could walk on his hands, hang by his heels, turn both back and forward somersaults, tread water and lay his hair, deserved to be King of his gang. But he fell into direful trouble when he tried to ex- press his admiration for Heart's De- sire. The humor of the whole pro- ceeding is delicate and fine. Kansas may contain the ‘‘most picturesque lot of cranks on God's green earth "— but there is a man among them who can write a short story when he isn't sloshing around among the Populists. So here's a hand to William Allen White, of the Emporia Gazette! Droch, in a serious vein. ‘The King of Boyville” is a comedy of young ‘ME STICKS AT NOTHING.” THE NIGHT AFTER CHRISTMAS. S the night after Christmas, and all through the flat, creature was wide-awake — barring the cat; The stockings were flung in a heap on a chair, Quite empty of candy St. Nick had put there. The children were all doubled up in their beds, With pains in their tummies and aches in their heads. Mamma heated water, while I, in my ‘wrapper, Was walking the kid (who is not a kid-napper); When out in the street. there arose a great clatter, And I put down the kid to see what was the matter; Rushed out in the entry, threw the door open wide, And found an old gentleman standing outside. I looked at him closely, and realized then ‘Twas ‘the /doctor I'd sent for that morning at j, ten. He was dressed in an ulster, to keep him from chills, And his pockets were bulging with boxes of pills. He came to the nursery and opened his pack, Full of fresh paregoric and strong ipecac; Rhubarb and soda-mints, fine castor-oil, And pink sticking-plaster, rolled up in a coil The children all howled in a chorus of pain, And the kid lifted up his contralto again. He felt all their pulses and looked at their tongues, Took all of their temperatures, sounded their lungs. When he'd dosed all the children and silenced the kid, He put back his medicines, down the stairs slid, Jumped into his cab, and said to the driver (In excellent humor, he'd just made a ‘fiver”): “I'm twelve hours behind my appointments, I fear, But 1 wish it was Christmas each day in the year!" P. Familias. La Fiancée : ARE YOU SURE, DEAREST, THAT I SHALL NOT BE A BURDEN TO YOU? HE ASSURES HER THAT SHE WILL NOT. comicbooks.com