Life, 1902-09-18 · page 9 of 22
Life — September 18, 1902 — page 9: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# "How She Saved the Day" This satirical story mocks the pretensions of a fairy tale about a magical "Spring of the Future." Various skeptics—a plutocrat, theatrical star, hermit, and historical novelists—dismiss the spring as fake until a small child appears and somehow convinces them otherwise through innocence or simple observation. The satire targets late-19th/early-20th-century social types: wealthy industrialists, theatrical performers, and intellectuals who fancy themselves authorities. Their cynicism is undercut by a child's uncomplicated perspective. The "moral" emphasizes that truth is provable if you know how—a dig at pseudointellectuals who overcomplicate simple matters. The accompanying illustration "An Elusive Lady" appears unrelated, depicting a romantic or mysterious female figure in period dress.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
How She Saved the Day. FAIRY who had lived in a forest all her life, and nevcr mingled with real folks, concluded that she would vary the monotony, so she invented a patent * spring that was calculated to draw a crowd, and presided over it herself in order to study human nature. She called it the Spring of the Future, and the idea was that when you gazed into its limpid depths you could look ahead and see yourself as you would be in the sweet by and by. The first applicant who came along was a plutocrat, who hav- ing paid his fee, gazed in the spring and said : “ Ah, it is twenty years from now. I see one of sy sons in a club smoking cigarettes and talking about the good time he had last night. His head is bald, though but twenty-nine, and he is as useless as they make ’em. Now I see my daughter having a set-to with her husband, some foreign duck, who is evidently get- ting the best of it. But no more! I won't look at another thing. Your spring is a fake.’ om AN ELUSIVE LADY. { GOOD EVENING. LET'S SER-I ACCEPTED YOU LAST NIGHT, DID I NOT? YOU SURELY DID! AND ONLY THR NIGHT BEFORE THAT YOU REFUSED PPOSE YOU TRY IT AGAIN AND WE'LL * MAKE IT BEST TWO OCT -LIFE- A BAD LISTENER, “ GRAN'POP, WHERE WUZ YOU WHEN THE MERRIMAC BANK?" “ NAILIN’ OLD GLORY TO THE MONITOR’S MAINMART."? “BUT THR MONITOR DIDN*T HAVE NO MAINMAST.”” He was succeeded by a theatrical star, who imme- diately began : “ Oh, yes, it is quite plain. I am an old woman. Iam quietly knitting in absolute silence. No! I cannot believe it. Your spring is a false, hollow invention.’” Tho next who came was a hermit. He gazed for 8 moment and burst into hoarse laughter. “Yes, it is indeed I,’ he observed. ‘* And sur- rounded by crowds of people. There is some sort of reception, and I am the center. Ah, now I see. I have been found out—discovered. Society has taken meup. What a fate fora lover of nature! But I don’t believe it. Your spring is a swindle.” By this time there was considerable commotion among the dissatisfied, all claiming with one voice that the spring was untrue, and it seemed as if the fairy would be mobbed. But although she had never had any previous ex- perience with people, she proved equal to the emer- gency, for she saw coming down the road two his- torical novelists and a naval hero, “T will prove,’’ she said, *‘ by these three who ap- proach that my spring is the real thing. Here,’ she said to the new recruits, ‘‘ what do you see?”” The two historical novelists and the naval hero gazed long and steadily into the spring. ‘* Absolately nothing!" they said at last. Thus the fairy’s triumph was complete and every- body apologized. Morat. It is easy to prove your case if you know how. comicbooks.com