Life, 1899-12-14 · page 13 of 20
Life — December 14, 1899 — page 13: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
The left cartoon depicts a chaotic medieval hunting scene in a bubble, contrasted with two modern figures below engaged in slapstick combat. The caption "BUT TIMES HAVE CHANGED AND HUNTING THE BOER IS NOT SO MUCH OF A SPORT" references the Second Boer War (1899-1902), when British forces fought Dutch settlers in South Africa. The satire suggests that while nobles once hunted for sport and glory, modern warfare against the Boers has become messy, undignified, and unglamorous—no longer the romantic adventure depicted in historical imagery. The cartoonist mocks the contrast between idealized past conflicts and the brutal reality of contemporary colonial warfare. The right-side poem, "Tragedy," humorously depicts a modern commuter reading news in a crowded streetcar while avoiding eye contact with a woman—only to awkwardly discover she's his girlfriend's mother, creating social embarrassment.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
517 Tragedy. READ tho news with an eyo that’s keen, In spito of the constant jar. My eyes aro glued to tho printed screen As I ait in the crowded car, I seem to read, yet I must confess It's only anawkward sham, Over my kneo is the swish of a dress, What a hypocrite I am! I might have stood when sho first camo in, But it's now too late, I know, Besides, sho may be ugly a6 sin: So I read, as we onward go. I read tho nows, but over the page Thero’s some ono looking . y Ky at me, Ye Jollie sport ‘ NL ins: With a lock of flerce and of huntynge ! { mingled rage, of ye oar .in ye eee oe . 3 / Z And I gazvuloft. 'Tis she! olden time. 7 = ‘ “ : ry ” To think (Ob, my luck is ood . F et bard to beat!) In that one eddy and whirl In the human stream, I should keep my eat From tho mother of my bost girl, Tom Masson, ERY curious things continuo to happen in France. A French Court of Appeals has lately decided that a periodical which Prints a critical review of an autbor’s work is bound to publish tho author's reply to the critic's strictures, This decision seems to put tho French press at the mercy of authors who can, if they choose, take up most of the space in the reviews by their answers, The most obvious remedy would be to stop re- Viewing the books of all authors who aro inclined to talk back, and that is feasi- ble enough, though it might cause embarrassment to lite- rary journals, Successfuland woll-paid authors, it may be observed, are rarely willing to spend their time refuting critics, It is the writers who can't write and whosetime is not valuable who would ine undato the reviews with their reeriminations, BUT TIMES HAVE CHANGED AND HUNTING THE BOER 18 NOT SO MUCH OP A SPORT.