Life, 1899-07-06 · page 14 of 20
Life — July 6, 1899 — page 14: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains three satirical pieces: **"A Sudden Affair"** (top left): A domestic humor story by Tom Mason about a husband's shock when his wife reveals their newly trained servant has agreed to stay on. The joke centers on servant employment anxiety—the "sudden shock" that makes the wife faint is good news, but the husband initially fears bad news. The satire mocks both the difficulty of finding competent household help and spousal miscommunication. **"Our National Birthday: The Survival of a Custom"** (top right): A silhouette cartoon about Fourth of July chaos, showing an out-of-control celebration with children, animals, and fireworks creating mayhem. It satirizes how Independence Day festivities had devolved into dangerous, uncontrolled disorder. **"For the Oregon's Captain"** (bottom right): References the wreck of the *Cristóbal Colón* (a Spanish ship). A finder's joke: discovering Spanish royal plates marked "C.C." in the wreckage, someone quips they're marked for "Charlie Clark's crockery"—implying the Spanish anticipated losing them to American salvagers.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
14 A Sudden Affair. «7 T was her fault.” The balf unconscious woman who lay prostrated in ber husband's arms, and who, but a few moments before, had succumbed to some sud- den shock of which be was as yet in ignorance, pointed her band in the direction of the kitchen. “She did it,” she con- tinued, faintly. “Two months ago that girl us, as you < know, in utter igno- gon4 rance of the simplest ~, houschold work. During i Vat that interval | bave taught her, little by little, day by day, everything that she knows, until at last she bas become the most accom- plished servant Lever had. And now—” Her busband raised her gently, while a look of mingled hatred and revenge stole over his face. “Quick!” he muttered, hoarsely “What on earth docs this mean? What has she done to you?” And the woman in his arms, regaining consciousness, smiled peacefully as she replied, ** She has agreed to stay.” Tom Mason. ONLY COUPLES. The Stag; HURRY © "NO YOU'RE TOO LATE. OUR NATIONAL BIRTHDAY. THE SURVIVAL OF a CUSTOM. For the Oregon’s Captain. WeHex the first diver went duwn into the wreck of the Cristo bal Colon he found in the Admiral’s cabin some handsome, uninjured plates. One was brought up and examined with great interest. It was a pure white plate, edged with a line of gold, within which was the crown of Spain and the monogram of the ship: cc. A bystander, looking on, remarked: ‘The Span- iards knew what was com- ing, and had Charlie Clark’s crockery marked for him.” N marriage and medi- cine, luck is every- thing.