Life — December 26, 1901 — page 13: what you’re looking at

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

-LIFE- 559 Let him increase that indiscriminate dozen to a hundred thousand and he can guess at the contents of some letters wo receive, and ho will begin to understand why tho blush of shame on the editorial cheek comes harder than in early youth. Apropos of which it may not be amiss to narrate a trivial episode —my interview with The Boston Lady of Austere Morality. Nearly a dozen years ago wo pub- Ushed a cartoon by Mr. Gibson repre- senting an American father at tho play, regarding with obvious enjoyment ‘a stage well covered with girls, all attired in the customary costume of the vaude- ville stage. Immediately following the appearance of that picture the letters began to como. A wail of horror and indignation arose from countless readers, Bo far as we could judge, we had out- raged every sense of propriety; we had corrupted the youth of America and smashed the family hearth to atoms, Emphatic were these letters,and so numerous, that I began to think Mr. Gibson and myself were unfit to hold communion with clean- minded people, Again and again, that weok, I studied the car- toon and tried in vain to discover its immorality; for, surely, If our sense of decency was 80 blunted as to prevent even a realiza- tion of our sin, we could not be trusted to prevent its recurrence. T. K. HANNA, JR And there are also momonts when ho heartily agrees with the Morning Telegraph : “ Lore is at present not worth living, let alone reading.” But after all, should he be despised if at times, when jbattered and weary- but never discouraged—he dodges the bricks and mud, returns to a quiet corner and roads a thing like this? ‘A paper edited by men who have the conrage of their con- victions and fearlessly stand for truth, justiee and mercy.” What cares he, then, for the gentleman from Den- ver, who says: “have never read your bright paper till recently. It ie a con- spicuons example of fine abilities prostituted, and I am led to feel that your ancestry must inclu m Paine and Benedict Arnold, your relatives Bob Ingereoll and Aguinaldo, and your father mast have been a coppethead avd your mother a rattle- enake "? And 80, tho “ Pulse of Public Opinion” is still a-beat- Ing, sometimes with a gentle purr, and sometimes lift- ing us, chair and all, through the window and across the street. Our Regular Advisers. It Lire wero to follow tho advice of each of his counselors, ho would suroly be inoffensive. Nobody would ever get hit, But it sometimes happens that the harder we try to be good the greater is our offence. Perhaps the reader of these lines has had occa- sion, in his life, to tell a pointed story to a dozen of his friends. If, in his folly, be told bis etory, not to a selected dozen, but to the Orst twelve ho encountered, regardless of ago, sox, color, political or religious bias, he would expect results, F. T. RICHARDS. comicbooks.com