Life, 1897-12-04 · page 20 of 34
Life — December 4, 1897 — page 20: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This Life magazine page contains three satirical pieces typical of early 20th-century American humor: **"Love in a Fourth-Floor-Back"** (top): A humorous ghost story by Galt Burgess about a young couple in a cramped apartment. A spectral lieutenant appears and points out mistletoe above their heads, revealing an "old family trick"—suggesting even ghosts used romantic ploys. **"Marked Improvement"** (middle): A brief domestic joke about a wife recovering from illness and becoming well enough to hire a servant, implying she's regaining her strength to manage household staff (or possibly her husband's household). **"Paid Upon Publication"** (bottom): Opens a serialized story about two orphan girls, Hortense and Eloise Smith, living in poverty in a city tenement on Christmas Eve. The narrator notes that if this were fiction, they'd have a more romantic name—a meta-joke about sentimental Victorian stories. These pieces reflect period preoccupations with romance, class anxiety, and domestic life, delivered through gentle satire and sentimental storytelling.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
LOVE IN A “ POURTH-PLOOR-BACK ” band’s cheek. “Oh, Jack—dow't ask me!” whispered the young woman, The lieutenant all his fear in his interest in the affair of the new generation, and, materializing himself to an almost translucent he pointed to the mistletoe over their heads and cried: “Look above her head, you young fool! 1 an old trick of the family!” And, vanishing with a violent effort, the two ghosts escaped to the Other World. Galt Burgess, pectre forge THE SPREAD OF AN “NOW, CHARLES ALOUSTUS, DON'T YOU OPEN YOUR MOUTH AGAIN TO-DAY! Marked Improvement. ODD: Is your wife conva’ Nome sme i om Toop: Yes. She is strong enough to keep another servant ing ¢ getting IDEA. 1 WANT You DISTINCILY TO UNDERSTAND THAT J WILL DO THE CROWING FOR THIS FAMILY IN THE FUTURE!” IS PAR SUPERIOR TO LOVE-IN-A-COTTAGE POR TESTING THE UND’ The Trickster. ITH. trembling cheeks A gentle child for shelter seeks, A pleasing, sad-eyed, little ehit he lips and tear-wet “Sweet Pity, welcome guest thou art!” L ery and open wide my beart When lo! my wits fly helte Look, and, freed from Pity’s guise, I see a boy with laughi ; “Tis Love himself I'v Ellix Marker Butler, Paid Upon Publication. NOW was on the ground, ice on the waters, frost in thi ; also cold wind with teeth in it, and all the rest of it, It was the 24th of December. Likewise Christe e. Hortense and Eloise Smith were sitting, disconsolate, upon the floor of their poor little room in the attic of a large tenement in a great city. If this were fiction instead of fact, their name would have been some- thing else than Smith, Hortens¢ and Eloise were orphans be-