Life — February 24, 1898 — page 14: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

YOUR MAgEST: REPLIED THE DUSKY MONARCH. A Dirge. LIF sum Awarded to the winner? Is it for this that I grow glum, And angular and thinner? Is it for this that I my wife And family have deserted, And ponder day and night for Lire This problem, disconcerted My business now have I for days Persistently neglected, And in this “ Pegasonian” maze Longfellow I've dissected. The Spanish Student all day long I've cut and sliced and mangled; The Bruges Belfry with its gong Within my ears has jangled. Evangeline Vve waded in Until my mind is hi I've lingered at the } Quite curious and crazy, The Building of the Shap have 1 For many hours attend A Skeleton, I sit and sigh And wish this thing were ended, ayside Tun O Morituri, Coplas De, And eke N You are three bitter pills to me, And worse than ‘‘ Hoot” Maclaren, ‘man Baron, Dear Lire, restore to me the brain Your curséd problem’s sundered; Just give me to myself again, And ['ll send you two hundred! One of ‘em. AID THE CANNIBAL KING “SeRVE EDM sz: what means this ample curr, G FROM THE BROILER, | HAVE OF A Word About Life’s “ Pe- gasus” Contests. contests there was a view: To introduce another interesting feature, and to stim- ulate a renewed reading of two of our most prominent poe! It is extremely gratifying, therefore, to receive from friends so many complimentary expres- One correspondent write: ‘Al: though I scarcely have hopes of winning the reward you offer, it is worth while, after so many years, to renew my ac- quaintance with Longfellow, and if only for this I feel that your scheme commended.” It is evident from this, and countless similar letters, that Lire’s readers are not misled as to the spirit in which this friendly compe- tition has been opened. You willno doubt all appreciate that in a contest purely of skill, and in which the: no element of chance—for Lirk would engage in no other—there are many difficulties pre- sented. The tendency is to make it so hard that no one may solve it, or so casy that too many will solve it. Both “Pegasus” contests numbers one and two were, through no fault of Liv open to these objections, but it is hoped that in number three the happy medium has been arrived at. This, of course, can twofold sions. is to be THERE 18 AMONG THE PRIS RS A NATIVE OF SCOTLAND.” WONDERED WHAT A HOT SCOTCH TASTRS LIKE.” only be achieved through experiment. Lire does not claim that there may not be other words in the ten poems which fit the picture better than those he selected, but it will readily be scen that there would be no fun in distrib- uting the reward among the greatest number who have agreed upon a partic: ular sentence. Neither was it permis- sible to award the sum to the one whose IT'S NOT HIS FAULT; IT's THE way HE was raised.