Life, 1904-07-07 · page 14 of 40
Life — July 7, 1904 — page 14: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page presents a serialized fiction narrative about a naval officer (Lieutenant Franklyn) whose reputation has been damaged by a lost necklace. The dramatic tension involves whether he'll commit suicide while under guard. The main illustration shows a portrait labeled "Life's Gallery of Literary Lights"—featuring Charles Cotton, Henry Van Dyke, and others, presented as authorities on leisure pursuits like trout fishing. This is satirical: the page contrasts high-minded literary figures with the melodramatic naval romance narrative below. The story's resolution appears anticlimactic: a commander recovers the necklace through mundane scientific method (using weighted leads and tide calculations to locate it on the ocean floor). The satire likely mocks both the overwrought emotional drama of the narrative and the gap between literary pretension and practical reality—the "literary lights" heading undercuts the sentimental story below it.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
14 face that his superior officer had never seen before. “Come with me, Lieutenant,” he said. He took the young man by the arm and led him down the companionway, where he touched a button. “Mr. Standish,” he said briefly to the officer who answered, ‘‘have the officer of marines come here."" ““My boy,” he said briefly, laying his hand on the other’s shoulder, ‘I'm not going to trust you alone with yourself to- night. I'm going to have you put under guard. You're in a dangerous mood.” The lieutenant smiled grimly. “Very well, sir," he replied, ‘but you misjudge me, It is true that my life is ruined, but I am not going to do the coward act.”" His elder friend shrugged his shoulders. “No,” he said, “I don't believe you will, but still—we all have our moments of weakness,"” The Ganymede lay in the harbor, about half a mile from the great summer hotel, the Penopeset House. The next afternoon at three o’clock, Lieu- tenant Franklyn, still under guard, was taken ashore and ushered into the private parlor on the second floor. Mr. Burnham, the magnate, greeted him cordially as he entered. “My dear fellow,” he observed, as he shook the young man's hand, ‘I know what you must have been through with, But allow me to relieve your mind at once. The necklace has been found." Lieutenant Franklyn looked at him with a smile of incredulity. “Tt is almost overwhelming of you, sir,” he said, ‘‘to say that, but I know it isn’t true. It couldn't be true." “Come, Jim," said the magnate to the commander, ‘‘tell him how it was,”” The commander took from his pocket a small package done up in a handkerchief, which was still wet. He opened it. There LIFE'S GALLERY OF LITERARY LIGHTS. CHARLES COTTON MENRY VAN DYKE, D. D., LL. Diy PORT, PROFESSOR, RSSAVIST, AND AN AUTHORITY ON HOW TO ANGLE YOR A TROUT IN A CLEAR STREAM, lay the necklace, Grains of sand from the ocean's bottom still glim- mered feebly in its setting. “ How is it possible?"’ he muttered. “Easy enough, Least night, imme- diately after the accident, I put over a lead from the precise spot where you had been standing. This lead was lowered rapidly with a loose line and remained on the bottom all night, where it had been sunk. I then noted the direction and velocity of the tide, and calculated that the necklace must be within a circle twelve feet in diam- eter, removed from twelve feet to fourteen fect from the spot where the lead lay. I then lowered another deep-sea lead, with soap on the end to ascertain the character of the bot- tom, and drew up sand. I was comicbooks.com