Life, 1899-01-12 · page 14 of 20
Life — January 12, 1899 — page 14: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
**Top Cartoon:** Two prospectors discuss a Klondike gold rush returnee who claims to have struck it rich ("cleaned up a nice ten thousand") but immediately squandered it on a sandwich and beer. The satire mocks the get-rich-quick mentality of the 1890s gold rush era—the absurdity of finding fortune only to waste it on trivial consumption. **"A Board-Bill Da" (verse):** A humorous poem about a Georgia lodging-house keeper who boarded a tenant named Lucretia who skipped town with a man, leaving the proprietor unpaid. It's a light joke about deadbeat renters. **"Education by Play" (article):** Satirizes manufacturers selling educational games disguised as toys to trick children into learning. The piece criticizes parents and teachers who prioritize self-improvement over genuine childhood enjoyment, condemning these games as "fraudulent pastimes" that deceive young or less-intelligent children into unwilling education. **Right Image:** "Let Us Prey"—depicts predatory birds in a Gothic arch, titled "In Commemoration of a War for Humanity," likely satirizing militarism or hypocrisy surrounding a contemporary conflict.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
“BACK FROM THE KLONDIKE, EU MEARD TOU CLEANED Ur A Nice TEN THOUSAND.” BUT 1 BLEW IT IN FOR A saNDWicHt A Board-Bill Da. LODGING-HOUSE keeper in Ga. Once boarded Lucrotia Ba. But she skipped to Ky. With a man she called dy. And the houso was minus a la, “Education by Play.” OME boys and girls there are in this over- instructed world to whom the annual visit of Santa Claus has not brought unvar- nished joy, The ruthless determing tion of parents and teachers to im- prove the youthful mind, at all times and at any cost, has inspired certain enterprising manufacturers to invent whole series of games, by means of which little, trustful children can be deceived into educating themselves under a shallow pretense of amusement. Occasionally these fraudulent pastimes bear some feeble resemblance to D real play, so that a very young child, or one of inferior intel- ligence, is success- fully cheated by such IN COMMEMORATION OF A WAR FOR HUMANITY. unworthy devices.