Life, 1904-05-19 · page 21 of 28
Life — May 19, 1904 — page 21: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains book advertisements and two satirical jokes typical of early 1900s Life magazine humor. The main cartoon shows a **bank president** suspicious of a job applicant whose credentials—Sunday school attendance, five years in the Salvation Army, Y.M.C.A. membership—are *too virtuous*. The satire mocks how exaggerated moral respectability can seem suspicious, inverting expectations: excessive piety becomes a red flag rather than reassurance. It's commentary on hypocrisy and distrust of the overly "good." Below is a smaller dialogue cartoon about a woman who, when asked for an itemized property account by her father, sends him her photograph instead—implying she considers herself her father's most valuable asset (or sardonically, that a woman's worth reduces to appearance). A third caption references the "Jap Navy" and Russian naval conflict, likely alluding to the **Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905)**, with "that sinking feeling" as grim wordplay about naval warfare. The page is primarily book reviews with these interspersed satirical vignettes.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
whose introduction few roman cers could have resisted. 7. B. Kerfoot. Cardinal Newman, By William Barry. Charles Scribner's Sons. $t.00, The lesue. By George Morgan. The J. B. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia. $1.50. The Commuters. By Albert Bigelow Paise. J. F. Taylor and Company. $1.50. The Memoirs of a Baby. By Josephine Daskam, Harper and Brothers. $r.50. The Vineyard. By John Oliver Hobbes. D. Appleton and Company. $r.50 In the Bishop's Carriage. By Miriam Michelson. The Bobbs- Merrill Company, Indianapolis. $r.50. The Key of Paradise. By Sidney Pickering. The Macmillan Com- pany. $1.50. ANK PRESIDENT (rapidly reading a letter): Is the man who wants a job as paying teller, and who just sent in this letter, outside? Doorxeerer: Yes, sir. “Well, lock up all the safes and send for a special force of detectives to watch the building.” “Is he such a suspicious character, sir?” “I should say so. Why, this letter says that he went to Sunday-school until he was eighteen, served five years in the Salvation Army, and is a life member of the Y.M. C. A.” “ DID YOU GIVE PAPA AN ITEMIZED ACCOUNT OF YOUR PROPERTY AS HE ASKED? “YES. I SENT HIM YOUR PHOTOGRAPH.” Ahoy! “ FVERY maa is the architect of his own HEN the Jap Navy heaves in sight, fortunes.” the Russians experience that sinking ‘Yes. That's why the cost so often ex- “rum AMATEUR CHERUB.” feeling. ceeds the estimate." comicbooks.com