Life, 1901-07-18 · page 13 of 20
Life — July 18, 1901 — page 13: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains three separate satirical pieces typical of Life magazine's humor: 1. **"When Bessie Climbed Over the Wall"**: A romantic poem by Winifred Sackville-Stoner about a young woman climbing a wall, suggestively implying glimpses of undergarments ("delicate laces"). The satire targets Victorian prudishness and the speaker's simultaneous shock and fascination. 2. **"A Volatile Community"**: A humorous dialogue where an Oklahoma hotel landlord boasts of his town's chaotic, violent character—lynchings, shootings, tar-and-feathering, cyclones—presented as signs of "liveliness." This satirizes frontier lawlessness and the braggadocio of boom towns, while implying social disorder masquerades as progress. 3. **"Fortune's Steps"**: A brief philosophical joke where "The Professor" claims nature adapts creatures to their environment, and "The Scoffer" retorts that seashore men lack extra arms despite needing them—mocking pseudo-scientific evolutionary arguments through absurdist logic. The top illustration depicts chaotic social scenes, reinforcing themes of disorder and impropriety throughout the page.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
When Bessie Climbed Over the Wall. V HEN Bessie climbed over the wall Not a word could I utter, For my heart was a flutter Ata sight not permitted at all, Of most delicate laces aces, e climbed over the wall. ‘The flecting blood rushes fo her forehead in blushes. The sweet picture I love to recall, Sut I can't the reason (L suppose this is treason) Why Bessie climbed over the wall. Winifred Sackvitle-Stoner. A Volatile Community. “V 7 HAT kind of a town have you here inquired a recently- arrived tourist from New England. “Lively!” enthusiastically replied the landlord of the Atlantic and Pa- cific Hotel, at Boomopolis, Oklahoma. “Lively, stranger! Thar's a lynchin’ ‘most every night, and balls, shootin’s, tar-aud-featherin’s, and other rallika boos, about as often as you can turn FORTUNE'S STEPS. out to’em; a couple was married in a balloon last week, two prominent preachers shot each other considerably at the Sabbath-school picnic day before yesterday, and thar was a cyclone less than a month ago; new buildin’s are bein’ erected right along, we've got an enthusiastic county-seat fight on hand all the time, thar’s a show in the Op'ry House once in a while, the O. K. barber shop put in a bath- tub lately, the post office was burglarized a spell ago—the front of the buildin’ was flung half-way across the street, the safe blown wrong side out, and the children have been busy ever since pickin’ postage stamps off'n the gum weeds whur the wind distributed em. You can git any kind of a gamo you like at any time or stir up any sort of trouble in a minute, by just lettin’ your wants be known. They call this yere town the Paris of Oklahoma, and don’t you forgit it!” ‘ [}HE PROFESSOR: Mother Nature hasa way of adapting creatures to the nec of their surrounding Tur Scorrer: Nonsense. If that's so, Why doesn’t she provide the man at the seashore with a dozen extra arms? TUE NEW STAR OF Hore. comicbooks.com