Life, 1904-02-04 · page 30 of 36
Life — February 4, 1904 — page 30: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page presents a serialized short story (not a political cartoon) about a struggling playwright's descent into poverty and madness. The narrative describes a volatile artist who violently ejects a poor woman from his room, then pawns his possessions to survive while obsessively working on his play. He eventually collapses into delirium and dies in a hospital. The story illustrates early 20th-century themes about the Romantic ideal of the starving artist—the notion that genius requires suffering and sacrifice. However, the text suggests this is presented ironically or critically: the protagonist's behavior is portrayed as brutal (he physically assaults the woman), and his "genius" leads only to death and poverty. The surrounding advertisements (soup, books, water crackers) form the typical magazine layout of the era. The story reflects period anxieties about poverty, urban life, and whether artistic aspiration justified actual human suffering or simply enabled self-destructive behavior.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
« LERE = chair, ‘*1'll have an officer of the law up here and we'll sce if a poor woman— ” ‘Here you, get out, get out I say.” The playwright came down wrathfully out of the clouds. He pushed the woman before him, his hand on her chest ; she attempted to scream, but he continued pushing her backward until she reached the door, when he took his watch from the mantel and flung it out into the corridor, | gave her another shove, and then, releasing her, | removed a ring from his little finger and threw it after the watch, eaying, as he sbut the door, | Theret Let that settle He went back to his i i y INS pacing nowise disturbed. RG | There was silence outside the door after the LIEBIG COMPANYS |Riareaesennenserinn EXTRACT (0) Oe 59 2) DO) ae D's drain, his breath came quick and rasping, MAKES DELICIOUS SOUPS and his eyes grew bloodshot with the strain which starvation, fever and the fight of genius invalid dishes. It Is the ever ready ald to up-to-date home against the world wrought upon him, As night scttled down, he arose from the table where he cooking. Just the thing for the chafing dish. MISS MARIA PARLOA had flung himself down to work out the plot variety of soups, sauces, made dishes, etc. in LICBIG which the afternoon had seen thought out, lived comy Compsct COOK BOO Sent free to any | and enacted in that room, and like a thief in the honsekeep her addrees on a postal to hi he ‘i pega cs sea Bt Now York N night he slunk out, winding his way through the guy crowds of the pleasure-thronged streets, “RARE BOOKS, PRINTS and. and hieing into the low alleys where, by strip- Our free Monthly AUTOGRAPHS, sess ping the clothes from his back, he defied nature through the pawnshop, so long as he had the e to-day for them. Y means to hold out. He brought back bread to his room, and so through the night went on at his plot, sitting by the table with a wet towel aronnd his head, and living and talking with the people of his dreams, Soon his mutterings became ravings, his cries, screams, and his body had transferred itself from the table to the bed, and was lying there tossing about, writhing and twisting in the throes of delirium, The landlady had again mounted the three flights and stood in the doorway with a kerosene lamp held high. ** Here you,” she called down to her husband. “Send one of the brats for the doctor, and I guess it’s the ambulance they'll be wanting. I'll have no black diphtheria or smallpox or what- ever in a respectable boardin’ house.” ‘Two days later, the doctor had had the man removed to one of the city hospitals. The land- lady had flung the scattered manuscripts in a table drawer and had righted the room for its second occupant, who proved to be a young man of refined but seedy appearance, with a face like that of a poet of the tender lyric school and the air of an aspiring milksop. Ie, also, was poor in pocket, desired fame, but pursued it gently, timidly, ever looking backward like a fearful schoolboy, expecting a clutch from the rear. The landlady came up condescendingly in re- sponse to his gentle summons one day, and informed him in answer to his question, that the papers found in the drawer belonged to the former occupant, who had been sent to the hospital sick of a fever, and died there a few days after. &D Tok foe hile teede-tonrte shes Darts “Nothing contagious, You needn't be afeered. THAYER A CHANDLER, 162-16) W, Jackson ivd.sChieage | Jest lack er food the doctor said.” The boarder smiled wanly and looked down at his pallid hands clasped loosely before bim, Send your n tion of our In dish. Visi r personal exami We carry no rub- YTHING THATS A BOOK.” GOODSPEEO'S BOOKSHOP, 54 Park si FRE 68 pages Bastoa, Mass. GIBSON PYROGRAPHY CATALOG. Write for it. GUISOS and otber artistic SPECIAL OF FE! Our Xo. 95 $2.50 Outnt for only S180 Incledes fine Platinum Point, Cork For a limited time. Handle. Lubber Tubing, Double Action bulb, Metal’ Union Two Pieces Stamped Practice . all contained in neat Leatbervtto 3 salo by your dealer, or sent Ly us C. O. D. for examination. Largest Makers of Pyrography Goods in the World. ‘All you bave guessed about life insurance may be wrong. If you WE PA Wish to know the truth, send for “ Why," ts POST- a ere alin ne GE, __ 221-55 chestnut street, Phiadetpnta, MAPLEWooD —_ Sanatorium established tn 1875 for the us private care and medical treatment of Nran CrxcisyaTt Drug and Alcoholic Addictions. Thousands having failed elsewhere have been cured by us, Address THE Da. J. L. Sternexs Co, Dept. 77, Lebanon, Ohio, Homo Treatment iy DEstReD, TAE CRACKER Ti BROWNSVILLE On I Dainty, Fresh and Crisp No other water cracKer has such a delicious flavor—none so crisp and dainty The Brownsville is the best Ask your grocer for it