Life, 1897-04-15 · page 9 of 34
Life — April 15, 1897 — page 9: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Analysis of Life Magazine Page 299 This page presents an essay by E.S. Martin reflecting on national character and self-improvement. The text discusses how Americans, despite flaws, possess "self-declaration" and capacity for reform—contrasting their optimism with criticisms of other nations (Germans, French, Italians, Spanish, English). The **bottom cartoon** (signed, appears to be by Cesare Maccari) depicts caricatured soldiers in combat, likely satirizing military leadership or the absurdity of war—a common Life magazine theme during this period. The **right-side illustration** shows a pastoral landscape, possibly accompanying the essay's hopeful tone about renewal and improvement. The decorative left border features ornamental botanical designs typical of early 20th-century magazine layouts. The overall thrust celebrates American self-awareness and capacity for moral progress.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Is there anything that we ought not to have done that we have not added to our tale of transgressions ?- Do any of our critics speak as ill of our rulers, our legislators, our municipal govern- ments, our foreign policies, our trusts, our bosses, our personal habits, our tastes and our newspapers as we do? URELY there 1s hope for a people capable of the development of such a fine gift of self-depreciation as ours. We cannot blind even ourselves to the fact that our country is big, and that there are a lot of active people in it, who are singularly apt in making things that other people want and are willing to pay for, We know that we have got rich fast, and we expect presently to go on and get richer, but our consciences, made sensitive by exhortation, no longer permit us to offset our moral or intel- lectual deficiencies by material acquire- ments. It is splendid, as Lent closes, to see a nation so down on itself as we are. * «© @ OW, if we may, let us perk upa little. Blind optimism is stupid, and consequently bad for us; but there is no harm in our looking around and trying to take courage. After all, the Turks are less civilized than we, and their government in Europe is probably nearer its end than ours here, Russia has an enormous future, but meanwhile her people are semi-barbarous and her government adespotism. Germany has a stifling government, and an Emperor who is amusing when he is 4.000 miles off. Our Germans love their fatherland and keep out of it. The French are dying of thrift, so they say; the Italians are poor, the Spanish proud, and neither of them prosperous just now. As for the English, Mr. Labouchere berates them as cordially as Mr. Godkin does the Americans. They abuse one another, and disparage everything that pertains to them almost as fervently as we abuse our concerns here, and though it must therefore be considered that they are in a hopeful state, they are still far from being perfected. * * * W* are sinners, but Jet us take some comfort in the hope that we have found ourselves out, and some more in the suspicion, if we may ven- ture to trust it, that our deficiencies are more glaring when contrasted with our own ideals than when compared with the defects of our neighbors. A state of conspicuous virtue 1s uncom- fortable, because it is almost certain to breed pride, and pride paves the way to a collapse; but to be under conviction of sin and eager for amendment is one of the hopefullest conditions known, and one of the safest to rejoice in. L us, then, as Easter recurs and brings back Spring, be humbly thankful that we have a good lot of repentance in stock and more making, from which, when duly sown with the seeds of Experience, we may hope to gather a meet and profitable crop. E. S. Martin, comicbooks.com