Life, 1904-09-29 · page 15 of 20
Life — September 29, 1904 — page 15: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
**Main Cartoon ("TIME"):** Two figures in a canoe exchange romantic declarations. The satire appears to mock sentimental romantic tropes—the absurdly exaggerated declarations ("wait a thousand years," "marry you today") are presented as clichéd sentiment, likely lampooning contemporary romance writing or theater. **"The Return of the Native":** This piece welcomes author Henry James back to America after twenty years abroad. The satire notes New York's radical transformation—buildings demolished and rebuilt multiple times over—while acknowledging the city's vitality despite (or because of) its chaotic energy and immigrant population influx ("moved in from Jerusalem, Schenectady, Baltimore..."). The tone is affectionate mockery of American restlessness and progress. **"Complete Outfit":** Mrs. Von Blumer jokes about buying another automobile to "tow myself home"—satirizing excessive wealth and the absurdity of conspicuous consumption among the wealthy. **"A Growing Infliction":** Criticizes paid theater "claque" (hired applauders) who disrupt performances, arguing that such artificial enthusiasm is worse than having none at all.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Copyright, 1:04 Lue. TIME. J 1 LOVE YOU BNOUGH TO WAIT FOR YOU A THOUSAND YRARS. The Return of the Native. R. HENRY JAMES has come back to visit his native country after twenty years of absence. We wonder at his grit, but bid him heartily wel- come, He landed in a New York, most of which he never saw before ; he spent a day in a new New Jersey seaside suburb, and then he went on to visit a beautified Boston. Boston is very nice, Mr. James, and it is not a// different. Briggs’cs and the Old Corner Bookstore are gone, but Parker's and Young’s and the Old South and the State-house are still there. But New York! Think of coming back to New York after twenty years! Mr. James, everybody you ever knew is dead, and three successive buildings have gone up on the site of the house they used to live in, and the last one is twenty-five stories high. Mr. Morgan, Dr. Dix and Uncle Shes Russell Sage are still with us, but the rest of us have lately moved in from Jerusalem, Schenectady, Baltimore, Odessa, Naples, Butte and Pittsburg. We had to come, we hope to stay, but sometimes we think tenderly of our old homes, and whatever you find to say about this town, say ahead, for we're not sensitive about it. And yet it is getting to be a hand- some town, And it certainly is alive, and its atmosphere is ever so stimula- ting, and some of the folks are real folks, and wages are fairly high, and opportunities abound. ? Deplor- ably. Hurried? Excessively. And yet it has a dum vivimus, vivamus quality in it that is good, and somehow we like it. Complete Outfit. RS. VON BLUMER: You don't mean tosay that you've got another automobile. What did you do that for? Von Biumer: Well, I wanted to tow myself home after this, AND I LOVE YOU ENOUGH TO MARRY YOU TO-DAY. A Growing Infliction. HE handed wee } A 7 vuffian is again EZ, loudly in evi- “dence. He is sos usually ad- 7p N~ mitted on a was pass to help the management along in boosting the applause, and he conscientiously tries to make good for the privilege of sitting in a free seat, regardless of the fact that he is an intolerable nuisance to patrons who have paid their way, with the understanding that they might secure whatever possible enjoyment they could without having their ear- drums split by the horny-fisted dead- head. A paid and intelligently directed clacgue would be preferable to the irre- sponsible and pestiferous gangs with which some theatrical managers try to boost their failures into success, iron- comicbooks.com