Life, 1899-04-06 · page 14 of 20
Life — April 6, 1899 — page 14: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains three distinct pieces of early 20th-century American humor: **"Spring in the City"** (poem by Kate Masterson): A romantic satire contrasting idealized nature poetry with gritty urban reality. It mocks both poor "shepherd poets" wandering city streets and wealthy tourists searching for natural beauty amid Broadway florists and concrete—suggesting spring's authentic joy cannot exist in the city. **"One Way to Do It"**: A joke playing on Jewish immigrant stereotypes. Young "Isaac Einstein" and "Prudence Bronson" discuss horse ownership; the punchline relies on the ethnic caricature of shrewd Jewish negotiation—Ikey suggests hiring a man without paying him, embodying an antisemitic trope about dishonesty. **Illustration captioned "Your Majesty"/"Mrs. N"**: Depicts wealthy Boston ladies overheating a mansion with excessive furnace use, satirizing the extravagance and poor judgment of the wealthy elite. **Bottom aphorisms**: Generic observations on gender relations and charity—"man's importunity is woman's opportunity" and "it is more blessed to call than to receive." The page reflects period attitudes combining class satire with casual ethnic stereotyping.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
One Way to Do It. “«V Spring in the City. Tee all the town prim- roses bloom, And daffodillys fling perfume In many a Broadway florist’s. Shy viclots lift their high-priced heads From damp, dark, dank and mossy beds Of Twenty-third Street forests ! Adown the street the cables clang As though a merry song they sang, A lyric, laughing-noted, The gladsomo gripman’s widening smilo Would indicate his joy, the while; Perhaps, indeed, he wrote it! Poor shepherd poets take their crooks And wander by McCartney’s brooks HY don’t you,” sald little Isaac Einstein to little Prudence Bronson, * why don’t you keep a horse and carriage?” Prudence weighed tho question, and then replied; “Well, Ikey, it's just this way. My papa can afford to buy the horse, and he can afford to buy the carriage, but he can't afford to keep a man to look after the horse and carriage.” “That makes no difference,” rejoined Ikey. “ He might get the horse and carriage and tho man, and then not pay the man.” “youn masestr!” ie “1 TOINK WE'LL TgvE To MAVR ANOTHER FURNACE A LANGE PARTY OF BOFTON LADIES ARRIVED LAST NIOUT AND THE THERMOMETERS Ane reozeN.” To where life lilts and lazies Through purple-hung Astorian glades And ‘mid dim, Weberfieidiau shades They go to hunt for daisies! And on through bosky Union Square, By cross-town dingles deep, to where Graco Church's chimes are ringing A tune fantastio—some old thing ‘That doesn't count, for Mothor Spring Devp in our hearts is singing That samo sweet, tender, happy lay That Mendelssohn once tried to play And blundered—ob, the pity !— Because he missed the rapture true, The blessed joys he never knew Of springtime in the city! Kate Masterson, 2 NOAM, IP THAT COUPLE GO ABOARD,1! *TAY HERE. M38 importunity is woman's opportunity. T is more blessed to call than to receive.