Life, 1904-06-30 · page 3 of 23
Life — June 30, 1904 — page 3: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
The illustration titled "The Discovery of a New Land" depicts a man and woman in a boat with several cherub-like children, appearing to reference family life or domestic contentment. The text includes "An Open Letter to Raisuli," addressing someone described as a bandit. The letter suggests sending various people to Morocco—including a tourist, a Christian Science teacher, and Father Smith of Utah—apparently as satire on unwanted or problematic individuals. The joke seems to be proposing to rid society of irritating people by exiling them. The "Novel Writing" column critiques mechanical fiction, arguing that authors stuffing novels with many characters for commercial purposes undermines genuine human interest in storytelling. The specific identity of "Raisuli" and exact historical context remain unclear without additional research.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
An Open Letter to Raisuli. EAR BANDIT : Since you've shown a disposition, d fine, id the Yankee tourist up ransom, gest that y xd friends of mine, 1 descend upon And in the Moorish manner ‘do the handsome.” down some likely names and put flock, ob, Who my ously missed— 1 safely be abducted and not ser Ionly they would travel in Morocco t Vil head the list with Mr, Rockefeller’s sacred son And his Bible class, a most attractive * fea- cher.” THE DISCOVERY OF A NEW LAND, Then you might abscond with gentle Motper Eddy, just for one, If you're looking for a Chri teacher. Next, Father Smith of Utah you might sweep into the hills. Like a straw before the terrible sirocco: Take them, take them to your hock-shop s deposit on your bills— an Science If only they would travel in Morocco ! There is William Jennings Bryan, who as hete, lest we forget What is hardly necessary to remember. Democracy would never try to hinder you— you bet !— If you tied him to your lair until September. A bandit, if obliging, might perform a world of ood By forcibly diminishing our stock—oh, Mr. Raisu-what's-your-name, it would be splendid if we could Send a fresh, selected shipload to Morocco, Wallace Irwin, Novel Writing. HANICAL novel writer ought not to be beyond a people who dy know how to di; food in factories and to play their pianos with a treadle, A stencil will certainly the talk, and that a pb ng lever can be made to supply the love theme and the human interest is hardly to be doubted. It may easily be found that where an author pours out his soul all at once, into a tin reservoir, he uses it more economically, and the unpleasant spec- tacle of bright young persons writing out with a hundred or two novels may thus be done away with. Of course, it will be vitally n ary to make the machine such that a child can operate it. comicbooks.com