Life — April 4, 1901 — page 21: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

The Old Hat. \7 HEN Dollydons herEasterhat— The hat is pretty, that is sure; A wondrous thing and peerless— She makes a proclamation that I find depressing, cheerless. And pretty, too, is Dolly ; But beauty’s magic fails to lure Away my melancholy. For very stern she grows, whereat I'm present bliss dismissing— When Dolly dons her Easter hat The edict is, ‘* No kissing!” James Barrett Kirk, 283 An Evil Threatened. A= morning, to the wonderment of his courtiers, Satan had sat motionless, lost in apparently the gloomiest thoughts, upon his great black throne. “Say, Lucifer,” he asked, at last, turning anxiously to that genial gen- tleman, ‘do I look at all shrunken to you?” “No, indeed, sire,” denied Lucifer, his tail curling in astonishment. “Why?” “Are you sure I don’t seem dwind- ling away any?” queried Satan, pur- suing his train of thought. “You never looked heartier,”’ as- serted Lucifer, with flattering positive- ness, “Tm not withering up, or fading y, or looking at all obsolete, am 1?’ went on Satan, with increasing anxiety. “Certainly not. sire. What in h— er — whatever put such a ridiculous notion as that in your head?” ex- claimed Lucifer, “Why, I went out for a quiet little walk last night,’ explained Satan, *‘and it so happened that I meandered for awhile around among the Philip. pines; then I skipped over to China, and sauntered about there a bit; and then I hopped over to South Africa, and took a short stroll through the Transvaal.” “Well, you didn’t see anything in any of those places to sadden you, sire,” ejaculated Lucifer. “Oh, I didn’t—quite the contrary,” cried Satan, with a reminiscent smile. “It was charming, perfectly charming, to see my work done in so workman- like a style. But I got thinking about it this morning, and 1 began to be afraid I was growing superfluous. With those fellows doing my work so skilfully, it did seem to me that perhaps I was no longer of any use and might just as well not exist. Are you perfectly sure that I don’t begin to look atrophied? Nature is apt to elimi- nate the superfluous, you know.” Alex, Ricketts, A High Encomium. & IDN'T you think it was a fine ser- mon?” “Very. It was almost equal to one of President McKinley's messages.” comicbooks.com