Life, 1898-06-30 · page 6 of 21
Life — June 30, 1898 — page 6: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Analysis of Life Magazine Page 542 **Top Cartoon: "The Rough Riders Have Started"** This depicts mounted soldiers in a comedic, chaotic scene. Given the caption and the style, this likely satirizes Theodore Roosevelt's famous Rough Riders cavalry unit from the Spanish-American War (1898). The exaggerated, tumbling poses mock the unit's romanticized reputation, suggesting incompetence or comic disorder beneath the heroic mythology. **"Our Fresh-Air Fund" Section:** Lists charitable donations—a legitimate fundraising announcement, not satire. **"Beauty and the Beast Again" Section:** A book review of Maurice Hewlett's "The Forest Lovers," discussing a romantic tale set in medieval times. This is genuine literary criticism, not political satire. The page mixes satirical cartoons with straightforward cultural content typical of Life magazine's format.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Our Fresh-Air Previously acknowledged . $179) 37 Helen Sears............ * see 300 0.J.C... _ eeceserenseoses oo H.S. Howard a seeeee Cash... Fairfield, € Cash..... , Dorothy, AM.G., Jr. Hes 73 Lire also acknowledg with thanks, the re- ceipt of one box of cutlery from Messrs, Laan Prary & Clark, ul frou River on the Hud- son,” one parcel of garments for LiPE's Farm. Beauty and the Beast Again. VERY kind of fiction has a revival ror biter, and in The Forest Lovers” (Macmiiian) Maurice Hewlett has essayed the difeult task of putting new life into the old-time Chronicle of knights and ladies which preceded the novel as we know It since the days of De Foe. Itisa sort of “ Fuerte Queene” put into romantic prose. As the author foretells it—* Blood will be spilt, virgins suifer distress ; the horn will sound through woodland glades ; dogs, wolves, deer and men, Beauty and the Beast, will tum h other, seeking life or death with their proper tools, There should be mad work, not devold of enter- tainment.” And there 1s—plenty of It! Anybody who Is thirsting for a bitof vig- orous medivalism will find it abundantly in this romance. The heroine Is a sort of Cinderelta, and her true knight tsa rat stupld but brave man, who finds ont at last that he really loves her, and kills people very gallantly to prove It. It ts a pretty tale, and the language em- ployed revives a plentiful assortment of ob- solete words which will keep even a clever Teader guessing. Rut the course of the tale 1s plain enough without these words, and THE ROUGH RIDERS HAVE STARTED! faithful love meets its poetical reward at last in the good old fashton. Tie 3 this kind of romance to Mr, tory of a Play " (Harper). From @ mnedieval forest to a Broadway theatre ts a far ery. Mr. Howells is almost the first writer of fiction to put theatrical people into a story in perfectly natural, un- theatrical manner. The leading man, the lead- ing lady and the manager have the unmistakable marks of their profession upon them, but In addition they are very modern Americans, who have plenty of the traits of ordinary human beings. The saving grace with Mr, Howells ts always bis exquisite sense of humor. When he ts tempted to preach or moratize to the destruc- isa plunge of at least five hundred tion of hts story, his sense of humor steps in with agentle bit of sarcasm to remind him that we are all very human, and it isn’t worth while to be too indignant with the inevitable, In this “Story of a Play" he bas combined the light touch of his comedies with the n elabonite character-drawing of his serious novels, ‘The result is a charming modern novel with the fresh grace of youth about it, and the deft crafts: manship of maturity. The chipper young writers who think they have classified Mr. Howells may learn a thing or two about their trade if they will read this tale, oc AR” gives the ttle to a small volume of «True Stories of Camp and Battlefield” (Doubleday & McClure), by General Miles and other soldiers of the Rebellion. They are mostly AT LIFE'S FARM—EVEN UP.