Life, 1900-06-21 · page 12 of 20
Life — June 21, 1900 — page 12: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Analysis of Life Magazine Page 532 The main cartoon ("The Sultan of Sulu") depicts a caricatured figure labeled "UMBOGO" in a racist, exaggerated style characteristic of early 20th-century American periodicals. The accompanying text references Roberts of Utah being "refused admission to Congress for a little matter of Three Wives," satirizing polygamy controversies. The cartoon appears to mock both the Sultan of Sulu (a historical Filipino leader) and, through comparison, Mormon polygamy practices in Utah. The grotesque racial caricature reflects the era's deeply prejudiced visual conventions. The page also contains "Where the Spankweed Grows," a poem about a dangerous garden plant used to threaten misbehaving children—typical Victorian parenting folklore content. This material exemplifies Life's satirical approach to contemporary political and social issues, though its execution relies heavily on now-offensive racist imagery.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
532 >LIFE- Where the Spankweed Grows. Some New Books. Femitiar Quotations, By Chauncey M. Depew. , The Monk and the Dancer. By Chas. F. Br. Son of Battie, Wy Lord Roverts. Paintin ) To Hare and to Hold. By Russell Sage. The Open Door, Wy Wiitiam 8. Devery. A Dream of a Throne. By Mark Hanns Treasure Island. Bg Richard Croker. Mee Mentet and Explained. Wy Major 4 Fool's Paradise, By Anthony Comstock, The Green Flag. By Mayor Van Wyck. ——— The Voice of the Winds. By W. J. Bryan, MALL BOY : Shut up, you nigger! Who's Who? By T. Roosevelt and T. C. Platt. ‘oMaN: Nigwer? 1’ A Guide fo the Trees By Signor Aguinaldo, i Irate Woman: Nigger? I'm as The Actwon and the Word, Wy General Ous, White as you are. A Dream, and a Forgetting. By George Dewey. “Yes; but I can be washed.” TP ILERE’S a corner in our garden, but my nurse won't tell me where, That little boys must never see, but always must beware. And in that corner, all the year, in rows, and rows, and rows, A dreadful little flower called the Spankweed _ Grows 1 My nursie says that if.a boy who doesn't wash his face, Or pulls his little sister's hair, should ever find that pla The Spankweed just would jump at him, and dust his little clo'es. Oh, it’s never safe for fellers where the Spankweed Grows! Some day I'll get the sickle from our hired man, and then T'll go and find that Spankweed place—it's somewhere in the glen. And when I get a-swingin’ it an’ puttin my blows, I bet there'll L citement where the Spankweed j Grows! Paul West, OW that the war in South Africa ts over, tt remains only for Engiand to celebrate her trlumph. The Suttan of Sulu; 1 see by the morning paper that my esteemed fellow-citizen, Roberts of Not only should a day of memorlal forthe great Utah, has been refused admission to Congress for & little matter of Three Wives. This seems to victory of two hundred thousand enlightened me to be an entirely just and proper act on the part of my esteemed contemporaries in Congress. A Englishmen against forty thousand “uncivilized” man with only three in his harem 18 certaluly not entitled to represent # great aud populous State Boers be set aside, bata statue ought surely be ke Utah. Why, I should be ashamed to draw a salary from the bentgn Government at Washington erected, something that will overshadow Wel- if I had less than thirty wives and three hundred concubines, and Sula 1s not nearly go important a ington and Nelson. Territory as that which embraces the Great Sait Lake, There 1s nothing like keeping up the Joseph Chamberlain, leading a golden calf into _ standard Of polygamy to a proper level. Brigham Young, and Joseph Smith, and other Patriarchs London Stock Exchange, might not bean tnap- —_in that glorious religion, Mormonism, did honor to the sacred institution. They bad wives to burn. propriate representation, Down with your petty, three-wife, Latter Day degenerates!