Life, 1899-06-29 · page 15 of 21
Life — June 29, 1899 — page 15: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
**Upper Section - Arthur Twining Hadley Anecdote:** This is a humorous biographical note about Yale's new president. It references an apocryphal story from when Hadley was born: supposedly he raised his hands in a Greek gesture and spoke classical Greek to his father, Professor James Hadley (a renowned Greek scholar). The joke satirizes the Hadley family's legendary expertise in Greek language—so absolute that even a newborn supposedly possessed it. The exchange between father and son playfully critiques overly precise classical scholarship (correcting the "wrong" tense). **Lower Section - "The Socratic Method" Cartoon:** This depicts a romantic courtship scene in Suffolk County, Massachusetts. A man argues that a woman should learn to love *him* rather than he learn to love someone else, using pseudo-logical reasoning. The title "Socratic Method" sarcastically applies Socrates' philosophical questioning technique to romantic persuasion. The caption "A Barmaid" suggests she's a working-class woman, implying humor in the incongruity of elaborate philosophical arguments deployed in an awkward seduction attempt.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
553 RTHUR TWINING HADLEY’S election to the presidency of Yale recalls a tradition prevalent there when he was a member of the student body. The future President was in the class of 1876 and carried off the valedictory in that year. Every student in college was acquainted with his personality, for they had all spent many long hours over the admirable Greek grammar written by his father, Professor James Hadley, and there- fore took un especial interest in his son. 80 convinced were the Yale men of the Hadley family’s innate knowledge of Greek, that it wus more or less implicitly believed among them that when Arthur Hadley was boro and for the first time laid in bis father’s arms, he raised his hands in a classical Greek gesture, and exclaimed: “ITarhp ¥pyosac.” (Pater, erkomai !— Father, I am come!) To which his father replied ib true professional tones: ‘‘ Wrong, my son; not the Perfect tense—the Second Aorist —fid@or. (Lithon—I have come.) «¢(-HARGE!” shouted the gallant Colonel. One private alone hung back. He formerly had been a clerk in Pusher'’s dry-goods store, where anything not a cash sale is treason. A es Lede tO THE SOCRATIC METHOD: SUFFOLK COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS. He: REALLY, RDITH, 1 SRKEMS TO ME THE AKGUMENT 18 ALL ON MY SIDE. YOUR PACULTIFS ARR PAR BETTRK TRAINRD THAN MINE, AND I CANNOT BUT THINK IT 18 MUCI MORE FRARIBLE POR YOU TO LEAKN TO LOVE ME, THAN POR ME, WITH MY SLOW, STUBBORN MIND, TO BEGIN ALL OVER AXD LEARN TO LOVE SOME OTHER GIRL. A BARMAID.” comicbooks.com