Life, 1900-10-04 · page 9 of 20
Life — October 4, 1900 — page 9: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Analysis of Life Magazine Page 269 This page contains satirical poetry mocking early 20th-century American religious and social hypocrisy. The poems critique: 1. **Religious establishment** - attacking preachers who preach pacifism ("milk-and-water preachers") while the nation pursues militarism 2. **Racial ideology** - sarcastically noting the "White Man" is "by Right Divine assigned" the world, while claiming color-blindness about racial hierarchies 3. **Social selectiveness** - mocking the "chosen people" who preach brotherhood but practice exclusion The photograph below shows a crowded commercial street scene, likely illustrating the gap between professed religious values and materialistic urban reality. The interchange between "Jasper" and "Jumper" at page's end appears to mock sensationalist "religious departments" in newspapers positioned as moral authorities. The satire targets America's simultaneous claims to Christian virtue and actual practices of imperialism, racism, and commercialism.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Predestined. E are the chosen people, J Great Jacob's latest seed— =] Eternally appointed To rule the Gentile breed. od of Battles makes us His most expecial care, And bids us crush the Heathe And all their plunder share. We go to church on Sunday-- At least sometimes we do— very ticket tells us to ; We seldom use bad language, ve the social pull, And, take things all together, We're most respectable. We know the Anglo-Saxon Is foreordained to thrive, And doubt if other races Should longer be alive. Jehovah is our leader, And bids his saints advance To take the horded Heathen For their inheritance. “EERE: Wherever gold is glowing, Or cotton, corn or silk, We yearn to preach the gospel To every mother’s son, And when the cusses spurn it, We preach it with a gun. Let hoary heads in Con) Deplore the lusty strife! Arm-chairs for all the dotards! We want ‘‘the strenuous life.” In vain their parlor precepts The Golden Rule unfold : We're on a different basis— And that’s the Rule of Gold. The world is to the White Man By Right Divine assigned ; When Destiny is calling We are not color-blind. The Black and Brown and Yellow Have served some end, no doubt, But all this “Man and Brother” Is certainly, played out. The milk-and-water preachers Had best their prattle cease ; An up-to-date Messiah Is what we want to see ; The Gospels are back numbers ; This isn’t Galilee. Yet our assimilation Is most benevolent, And we absorb the alien With kindest of intent ; But “Free and Equal” problems We really can’t discuss, And when we say “ benevolent,” Of course we mean to us, We are the chosen people— ‘The long-elected seed— We're on the track of Glory ‘And grow in grace and greed. Tn vain the Peace Commission Would check our spreading girth ; We want no New Jerusalem ; We only want the earth." Edward A, Church, ASEER: I believe the Journal is trying to elevate its moral tone. Jumpurre : Go on. . “I mean it. They have started a religious department and placed it under the charge of a prize-fighter.”’ We've little use at present For any “* Prince of Peace.” Wherever lands are flowing With honey and with milk— iF EVE SHOULO COME BACK TO EARTH. comicbooks.com