Life, 1904-01-07 · page 22 of 36
Life — January 7, 1904 — page 22: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains two distinct pieces of satire about early 20th-century American society. **The main cartoon** illustrates "The Tobacco Plant" with anthropomorphic flowers—including a cherub-faced bloom and butterflies—as a whimsical visual metaphor. The accompanying text by Tom Masson mocks the formula for success in America: securing newspaper coverage through "hot air, interviews and Bluff." The satire suggests that self-promotion and media manipulation matter more than actual substance or achievement. "Bluff" (deception) is identified as "the greatest of these"—a mockery of the biblical phrase about charity. **"The Ambassadors: A Question"** (with apologies to Henry James) appears to excerpt from or parody James's famous novel, critiquing the confused, tangled prose style of literary intellectuals who speak pretentiously rather than "lucidly, in English." Both pieces satirize contemporary American culture: one targeting shallow celebrity-chasing and media obsession, the other mocking obscure, affected literary pretension among the educated class.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
GARDEN, LOVE'S is, and I am going to tell dears, it is nothing more than keeping on the right side of the newspapers, So, dear little ones, remember these three things: Not only to throw a Bluff, to be able to talk at all times, but also to have as much published about yourself as possible. Or, to put it in briefer form, there Hot air, interviews nor less are these three: and Bluff. Bat the greatest of these is Bluff. Tom Masson, “The Ambassadors.” Question. TO WENE WITH APOLOGIES James. TP XHE reader was, even then, although scarcely, as yet, c¢ nal, illun bat yet parently, confusing More than once, ative icingly nd tangled sentences. , such is the rise cheeked, though hardly an intuitive effort, the nervous initiative of throwing, and thus definitely, decisively, MEADOW BEAUTY, OR REC GRASS. book into the fire. And. now, he felt, upprehended, sense of ing more th cessful mastery of a new element, perhaps the new-born control of the air, s just realized, was, in the event, to grow, and spread, into an_all- making an end, the Rut he had chy it this pervasive, hal power, like to nol n the sue- young bird over embracing freedom. But here, on the moment, perversely, pops up.at the b “After al without periphrs This, by an k of his head, a questic vit seems to run, “why ne lucidly, in English? luigence of that all too of mind, fairness, refusal ither side, what you will, instantly pted the parrying, as it were, of his wn thrust; and, “Tf lucidly, he ti And |, unwittingly, at cheek, he all regretfully awa he said. comicbooks.com