Life, 1901-03-14 · page 9 of 20
Life — March 14, 1901 — page 9: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Analysis of Life Magazine Page 209 **The Main Illustration:** "Historic Bits: Too Late" depicts a military scene where a mounted officer appears to be addressing troops, with a caption referencing "Cornwallis's decision to offer his attack until morning on 'That Fox Washington.'" This satirizes a historical moment—likely the American Revolutionary War—mocking British General Cornwallis's delay in attacking George Washington, suggesting this hesitation proved strategically fatal. **The Text Below** contains dialogue mocking amateur versus professional actors on Broadway, with characters debating whether Broadway performers qualify as "professionals." The humor hinges on class pretension—the dismissive comment that no "prominent people" attended suggests these actors lack social standing. Both segments appear designed to entertain through historical irony and contemporary social mockery, typical of Life's satirical approach.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
HISTORIC BITS. TOO LATE. RESULT OF CORNWALLIs'S DECISION TO DEVER MIS ATTACK UNTH. MORNING ON that we make the above suggestion. We refer to the Book of 1 rls. We have called attention to some n cases in the past three months and chronicle three new ones in the present issue. An effective serum, supplied in good season, might save much future trouble. Out of Their Class. J[ANHATTAN: They aro only M amatenr actors, are they 1 Broapway: Yes, but they are jeal- ous enough of one another to be professionals. “THAT POX WASHINGTON.” HE: The opera was a bore—posi- tively no one there of interest. He: How about the de Reszkes and Melb: “ How silly of you. there were no prominent people there!" I meant to say