Life, 1899-03-16 · page 13 of 20
Life — March 16, 1899 — page 13: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page is a memorial to **Michael Angelo Woolf**, a cartoonist whose death the magazine mourns. The text praises his drawings of street children—poor urban kids depicted with humor and pathos. The cartoons shown are examples of Woolf's work from various Christmas issues (1894, 1896, 1889). They satirize poverty and class inequality through children's perspectives: - **"The Empty Stocking"** depicts a bare interior, suggesting a poor household at Christmas. - **"Too Dreadful to Think Of"** shows a child worried that Santa can't afford toys if everyone has large stockings to fill—dark humor about scarcity and want. - **The final cartoon** contrasts wealthy and poor families' Christmas practices, with children noting that rich people use stockings as a signal for Santa to visit their homes—implying the poor lack such advantages. Woolf's specialty was social commentary through children's innocent observations about inequality, done in a "friendly, sensitive, lovable spirit" rather than heavy-handed preaching.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
233 Pee readers who have followed LirE from its begin- ning know well the drawings of Mictarr ANGELO Wootr, whose death we sincerely mourn. His children of the street, often amusing but oftener pathetic, told many a rue Exrrr stocxixo. tale of joy and misery, of fun and mischief, of hunger, of From Christmas Number of Lure, 1894, love, and of subtle satire. . These creations were always gentle and never vicious. They were simply but cleverly drawn, and done in a friendly, sensitive, lovable spirit—the spirit of the man himself. “ nesore, wnat DORs TOO DREADFUL TO THINK OF. “way, THAT's THE RICH FOLKs' WAY OF GETTING SANTY “7 GAY, TOMMY, IP EVERYONE OF U8 WORE STOCKIN'’S 48 BIG 4S THEM, CLAUS TO STOP AT TAEIR WOUSKS; IT MEANS ‘I HAVE @ANTA CLAUS WOULDN'T HAVE ENOUOH TOYS TO GO ROUND.” sTockixas.'" | From Christmas Number of Lire, 1896. From Christmas Number of Lure, 1889.