Life, 1900-11-01 · page 8 of 20
Life — November 1, 1900 — page 8: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Analysis of Life Magazine Page 348 The page contains three short satirical pieces rather than a single unified cartoon: 1. **"A Willing Subject"** mocks a woman devoted to golf and art while neglecting domestic duties—a common early-20th-century critique of women pursuing interests beyond homemaking. 2. **"A Worthy Case"** describes charitable efforts to establish a memorial home, likely referencing a real philanthropic initiative from the period. 3. **"Axiomatic"** presents a brief father-son joke about the difference between politicians and statesmen—typical period humor about political hypocrisy. 4. **"The Only Way"** satirizes solving social problems through elaborate dinner parties rather than substantive action. A photograph captioned "Say, Doctor, will you please prescribe something for my freckles?" appears to show beauty-related vanity humor typical of the era. The overall tone targets gender roles, politics, and social pretension.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
A Willing Subject. HE loves the game of golf, she loves to paint, Ceramics find in her a devotee ; She follows ev'ry fad without restraint, “At times she tries her hand at poetry. She loves all forms of music and of art, She loves to linger o'er philosophy, And what she loves she loves with all her heart— Ye gods! I wish she'd make a fad of me! Nathan M. Levy. A Worthy Case. TH late Samuel M. Pringle and his sister, Mrs. Fenton, left two hundred and fifty thousand dollars for the purchase and maintenance of a home for destitute old men of letters. A suitable house has been bought at South Nyack, and it will soon be ready for its patrons. Among the necessary qualifications for admission are age, education, refinement, literary tastes, past prosperity, an admission fee of three hundred dollars, and a physician's certificate that the applicant is not suffering from an organic disease and has no trouble resulting from alcoholic stimulants. The benevolence of the foundation is unimpeachable. The en- dowment is ample. All that is needed to make the memorial home pleasant is good housekeeping and agreeable society. To get in the right sort of folks is the hardest problem. If the management could induce our fellow- citizen, Mark Twain, to become the nucleus of the literary circle at South Nyack, the success of the Home would be secured. Mr. Twain can probably UE MADE WIS FORTUNE. qualify if he cares to. He is reasonably old, though not excessively so; he is literary, passably educated, refined enough ; has seen better days, is in good health, and has had no alcoholic troubles that anyone knows of. He can raise three hundred dollars, too. The only hitch about him seems to be in the detail of destitution. It appears that he has paid all the debts of his business partners, is square with the world, and still able to make a living, 80 that it is a question whether he could produce evidences of destitution that the Pringle Home could accept. One cannot even insist that he shall try, but there is no doubt at all that it would be the making of the Home to get him. Axiomatic. ««DAPA, what is the difference between a politician and a statesman?’’ “My son, the statesman rules the country, and the politician rules the statesman.”” The Only Way. ME. DIMPLETON : My dear, it is being reported around that we owe everybody. Dasuaway: And the worst of it is, it’s true. So what are you going to do abont it? “Do? Why, we must correct suchan impression immediately by giving an elaborate dinner party.” HE announcement of Harper's Magazine that it is about to return toits original price of thirty- five cents a number will be gratify- ing to all readers wlio prefer quality to quantity, and who favor adherence to high standards in literature and art. The great business of supplying the public with cheap magazine literature is so abundantly attended to, that it is a fair business question whether it is not somewhat overdone. To be sure, //ar- per's Magazine, even at the reduced price, has never been in that business, but it is a great deal easier to lower the standard of an established high-class periodical than to raise the standard of a cheaper one, and it is matter for congratulation that //arper’s prefers, after consideration and experiment, to adhere to the lines on which its repu- tation was established. “SAY, DOCTOR, WILL YOU PLEASE PRESCRIBE SOMETHING POR MY PRECKLES!" icbooks.com