Life, 1897-06-24 · page 8 of 21
Life — June 24, 1897 — page 8: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Analysis of Life Magazine Page 528 This page contains two distinct elements: **Upper section**: A poem praising Queen Victoria on her 60+ years as monarch, celebrating her as "good queen, good wife, good mother" and "faithful ruler." The accompanying photograph shows an elderly woman in formal dress. **Lower section titled "A Literary Romance"**: A humorous sketch mocking overwrought Victorian literary conventions. It satirizes Hamlet's romantic pursuits through absurdly florid novel titles and plots ("A-Yak-Man-up-to-Date," "Pride and Prejudice," etc.). The accompanying cartoon shows two figures in what appears to be a domestic scene, with dialogue about chewing gum—likely poking fun at the contrast between pretentious literary aspirations and mundane reality. The satire targets the gap between romantic literary ideals and actual human behavior in the Victorian era.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
‘LIFE: VICTORIA. “Kate Carnegie” sat ‘* Next Door.” She had “A Pair of Blue Eyes” and she seemed ot Like Other Girls.” She told ** Ben-Hur” real name was ‘‘ Katrina,” and “* Her Early Home was “Beside the Bonnie Briar Bush.” It was “An Errant Wooing,” and when he said ‘Which Shall It Be,’ “Lover or Friend ?” she answered * Love Me Little, Love Me Long.” “The Little Minister” wason the trainand Hamlet and Kate were ‘Married in Haste.” He gave her a “* Moonstone” ring and ‘‘ The Eustace Diamonds,” and told her he was ‘A Nameless Nobleman,” but he'd love her ‘‘ For All Time.” Hamlet then took his ‘‘ Wee Wife" on ‘‘ A Sentimental Wedding Journey,” down to his “ House-Boat on the Styx." This proved a ‘Saints’ Rest,” and '* The World Went Very Well Then,” He was now ‘Master of His Fate,” and on ‘Second he concluded that one is happier in “ Married Life” than ‘When Alice Twitchell Pratzner, Copyright by Lafayette. O the great lady, sixty years a queen, Whose simple fame with every decade grows, From lands across the seas, by her unscen, But where each child her face and story knows, Goes forth a greeting, friendly, warm, sincere. Happy the day that finds its honors duc To one whose title to them reads so clear! Good queen, good wife, good mother! Woman true, And faithful ruler, equal to her tasks! Fast friend of peace; who held her own but claimed Naught law denied. Posterity that asks— “What of Victoria?" shall find her named— “Of Britain's sovereigns most beloved and blest, Whose reign the longest was, and was the best.” E. S. Martin, A LITERARY ROMANCE. OPP ANLET was giving “A Little Dinner at Timmins,” when ‘* Faust" told him that The Thing to Do,” if he wanted to be ‘ A-Yale-Man-up-to-Date,” was to enter into “ Matrimony.” Hamlet was at a dead- Locke on the Human Understanding" concerning ‘‘ The Love Affairs of an Old Maid,” so he determined to set aside all “ Pride and Prejudice," and be guided by his ‘* Comrades” in this “Affaire de Cour.” Consequently he started on “A Little Journey in the World,” ‘ With Matrimonial Intentions. He met first ‘A Matter-of-Fact Girl,” but she was ‘Out of the Question,” as she lacked the ‘ One Thing Needful,” ‘* Sound Money.” Next he saw “A Fair Barbarian,” and he was “On the Eve" of ‘A Proposal" when he discovered that she was one of “The Fools of Nature.” “A Woman of Honor" then filled his heart with “April Hopes,” but she thought him '*A Sane Lunatic’ because he asked her if she wasa‘‘Bread Winner.” Then, too, she “ Wanted a Pedigree,” and this was not ‘His to Give.” After these “Episodes” he thought he'd be “Better Dead,” but decided “At Last” to try again. So be took ‘The Parlor Car" at “The Albany Depot” and went “Beyond the City.” He called for some “* Heartsease and Rue,” but the ‘Porter's Intellect” was slow, and he brought him ‘Coffee “ cHewinc-cus 2?" and Repartee” instead. ““T'M not CHEWING GUM, YOUNG MAN,”