Life, 1899-03-02 · page 14 of 20
Life — March 2, 1899 — page 14: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains two distinct satirical pieces: **Top section (Wagner/Music):** A critique of Wagner opera devotees at the Metropolitan Opera House. Life mocks the genre's pretensions—"ponderous," clumsy plots, "stupefying" monologues, and an obsessive belief that every musical note carries profound significance. By contrast, Life praises the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall as technically superior yet genuinely modest, positioning itself as the discoverer of this truth. **Lower cartoon:** A visual gag showing a hunter and dog discussing quail hunting. The caption jokes that quail are "familiar" because "this is the close season"—meaning the birds should be protected from hunting. This appears to be satirizing either illegal hunting or the hypocrisy of ignoring game laws. **The McKinley reference:** Text mentions discovering that Secretary of War Alger still holds office under President McKinley—likely satirizing either bureaucratic inertia or surprise at Alger's continued employment. The overall tone is elite cultural commentary mixed with political jabs at American government.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
174 PUIG ‘THE, ponderous delights of Wagner are now being dispensed with a lavish hand from the stage of the Metropolitan Opera Hous Mature goddesses avd corpulent fairies vociferate in Teutonic gutturals, assisted by hard-working males. These males appear, as a rule, in their underclothing, with occa- sional door-mats thrown across their shoulders. The narrative in these Wagnerian operas is generally primitive, often clumsy and unsuit- able for dramatic purposes, but enlivened by monologues of stupefying length, Every note of the music, however, to the true Wagnerian, has its subtle relation with some other note somewhere else. Every bar and measure, every toot and bang, are so laden with sigcificance as to render music by other composers too trivial and contemptible for serious consideration, A pleasant relief from too much opera of TO MR, McKINLEY. JT MIGHT BRING RELIEF: = this description, and from some of the humbug that is inevitable with such in- tolerant adoration, is afforded by the concerts of the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall. Nothiog can be more seri- ous, more sincere, more tech- nically perfect, than this mar- velous company. Their pro- grammes may sometimes be a little too lofty for the popular taste, but they are rendered with such delicacy and feel- ing as to become a delight to IFE isa modest sheet,and does not like to cull attention to its own perfections, But there isa time when modesty ceases to be a virtue, and this is it, Therefore Lire claims for itself a generous meod of praiso when it makes known to a waiting world a discovery which should give it a high place among the world's most. enterprising journals, By its own resources, unaided and alone, it has discovered and now makes known that Mr. Alger of Michigan is still Secretary of War in President McKin- ley’s Cabinet. “YOU ARE THE MOST PAMIZIAR QUAIL f EVER SAW." “WHY NOT? TUIS 18 THE CLOSE SEASON, YOU KNOW.” the professional and an edu- cation to the amateur. NATION which bas a navy seldom lacks precedents