Life, 1899-06-29 · page 13 of 21
Life — June 29, 1899 — page 13: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains three separate satirical commentaries on contemporary figures and issues: 1. **Mark Twain in London**: Mocks Twain's presence in England, suggesting he's gathering material for his memoirs while living in Vienna—implying he's out of touch or self-aggrandizing. 2. **France and American Problems**: Proposes "exporting" America's social problems to France as a joke. References include Secretary Alger (likely Elihu Root or Russell Alger), Southern lynch mobs, the Baker-Howard feud, and President Loubet's confrontation with French nobility. The tone is darkly satirical about American violence and corruption. 3. **The Dreyfus Affair**: Mentions Du Paty de Clam, Esterhazy, and Pegasus—all connected to the real Dreyfus scandal in France. Attacks these figures by name while joking that yellow journalism (American newspapers) should migrate to Paris. 4. **Harper-McClure Combination**: Final jab at publishing monopolies ("the Octopus") allegedly entering literature and replacing genuine artistic merit with commercial mass production. The cartoons illustrate these monologues with domestic scenes.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
‘A MORNING CALL. ARK TWAIN has como out of his swamp down in Vienna, and is having a bully timo in dear old London. Ho must be getting a fine lot of English matorial for his embalmed memoirs. oe TRANCE would be a good pasture into which to turn some of our superfluous clemonts, It couldn't possibly hurt France, and might holp us. For instance, how beautifully our Southern lynchors and tho gentlemen who are conducting the Baker-Howard feud would offset the “flower of the French nobility” who mobbed President Loubet. We could also spare Secretary Algor to reform the French army. Let him onco introduce his canned-beet methods, and protty soon there wouldn’t be any French army, And how quickly the wholo Dreyfus matter might bo settled if our yollow journals would only -LIFE- . 551 migrate to Paris, and start their career by kidnapping that ingenuous infant, Esterhazy, . . . 8 for Du Paty de Clam, he should have been arrested fifty years ago. No man bearing such a name could fail of turning out badly. Grave disasters might have been averted had he been guillotined the day after his christening. . . . HE Harpor-McClure combination gives currency to dire rumors that the Octopus has gone into literature. This means that Pegasus will be turned out to grass, and that the underground trolley will be introduced into the paths of litera- turo, with transfers at all intersecting points, comicbooks.com