Life — January 21, 1904 — page 5: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This page presents "The Higher Law," a German problem play being reviewed or excerpted in Life magazine. The main content shows Act 1, featuring characters including Gräfin von Holzwegen and her maid Emma in a domestic scene. The large portrait depicts Captain Richard Hardly Davis in period costume, identified in the caption below. The smaller cartoon sketches on the right illustrate physical comedy—a man attempting various acrobatic moves with captions like "I'll show you how we used to coast when I was a lad" and "We always started off like this, but—" These appear to mock either the play itself or period German theatrical conventions, using slapstick to satirize the "higher law" theme. The juxtaposition suggests Life was ridiculing this serious dramatic work through humorous commentary.