Life, 1899-05-25 · page 13 of 20
Life — May 25, 1899 — page 13: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains three distinct satirical pieces: **Top cartoon** ("When Tannhauser Gets to Japan"): A joke about opera—Wagner's "Tannhäuser" depicts excess and debauchery. The visual gag suggests what would happen if such opera plots were transplanted to Japan, playing on early 1900s fascination with Japanese culture and the contrast between Western excess and perceived Japanese restraint. **Middle article** ("Unfit to Hold a Commission"): Criticizes Second Lieutenant Frank Nay of the 31st Michigan Infantry, court-martialed for drunkenness and breaking into five or six houses in Cuba. The piece mocks Major-General Bates' lenient punishment (one month's pay and public reprimand) as absurdly light for serious misconduct, arguing newspapers should pressure the court to impose harsher discipline. **Bottom cartoon** ("Who Are They?"): Five silhouettes with the caption "WHO ARE THEY?"—likely a guessing game for readers, possibly identifying contemporary political or social figures, though their identities aren't specified on this page.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Paying Patient (leaving hosptta): wert, wuRse, 1 AM VERY GRATEFUL POR ALL THE SKILL AND ATTEN: TION 1 AVE RECEIVED HERE. 17 THERE 18 ANY WAY IN waica I COULD siow MY GnaTiTUDE— Nurse: PERHAPS 1 OUGHT TO MENTIUN THAT PAYING PATIENTS, IP UNMARRIED, ARE EXPECTED TO PROPOSE TO ONE OF THE NURSES. THEY DAVE FULL LIBERTY oF cnoice. where decent people lived, maltreating men, scaring women and children in their bed- rooms, insulting a corpse, and bebaving with miscellancous indecency. He was fined one month's pay, and to be publicly reprimanded. Major-General Bates has ad- ministered the reprimand, Ic rehearses the charges, says the punishment is absurdly dis- proportionate to the offenses as proved, and WHEN TANNHAUSER GETS TO JAPAN. that the court's standard of conduct is not ® that of the army, As far as he could, he has put a blackguard in the pillory. ‘Thank you, Major-General Bates. Perhaps, thanks to you, the newspapers may perform the duty towards Lieutenant Nay which the court shirked, . 5 | Unfit to Hold aCommission. stationed’ in the province of Santa 'AKE notice that Second Lieuten- Clara in Cuba, was recently tried ant Frank Nay of the Thirty-first by court-martial for getting drunk, Michigan Volunteer Infantry, lately forcibly entering five or six houses aos: ‘WHO ARE THEY?