Life, 1899-10-19 · page 13 of 20
Life — October 19, 1899 — page 13: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page from *Life* magazine features theatrical and political satire. The top shows two actors—James T. Powers and Peter Daly—in costume, presumably from productions inspired by "Trilby" (a popular 1894 novel that sparked theatrical adaptations). The main text is a comedic parody of Hamlet's "To be or not to be" soliloquy, rewritten as "To golf or not to golf" by Tom Masson. It mocks the obsessive golf craze among prominent figures of the era, treating the sport's frustrations with mock-Shakespearean gravity. The bottom section, "An Army Culprit," presents a brief dialogue satirizing military bureaucracy: a civilian expresses surprise that a young officer faces court-martial for a minor infraction, but the captain explains that even small rule-breaking threatens military order and must be harshly punished. The satire critiques rigid institutional thinking and disproportionate responses to minor infractions.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
James T. Powers as" Tritby.” : LIFE : 343 Peter Daly as“ Juttet.” AS PROMINENT ACTORS SEEM TO BE INSPIRED BY SARA'S EXAMPLE, LIFE VENTURES A YEW PREDICTIONS. Py z © golf or not to golf: that is tho seals Be question, x -46. Whether it is nobler in tho mind to suffer Tho slings and arrows of tho scornful critica . “ Or to take arms against a links hy. of troubles oath And by trying, arn not. To drive, to putt: To putt, perchaneo to holo, the rub, For in tho efforts mado, what strokes may come When we havo cut the ballin half and cursed tho lio Must give us pause. Thoro’s tho reproach Ayo, thore's That makes us monkeys all the livelong day. For who would bear the whips and scorns of time, ‘Tho professor's tongue, the best girl's con- tumely, Tho pangs of a poor approach, tho air that’s fanned, ‘Tho insolence of caddies and the scores ‘That patient merit only make more longthy, When he bimself might his quietus make With a bare brassie? Tom Masson. « P)OES Teddy love the G. A.R. us much as be makes out ?" “* Well, he wouldn't love the G.A.R. so much, loved he not the presidency more. An Army Culprit. HE CIVILIAN; What, Lieutenant Nobarm to be court-martialed? Why, I always thought him to be a most correct and inoffensive young man. Tue Carrain: Well, his crime was perbaps more due to impatience than calculated viciousness, but nevertheless it was an act absolutely subversive of our system, an act turving topsy-turvy the excellent regularity of our estab- lished routine, and well calculated to cause chaos if allowed to stand as a precedent in our departments and disci- pline, besides opening the way for un- limited license and fraud. So, of course,