Life, 1904-11-17 · page 7 of 24
Life — November 17, 1904 — page 7: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains two distinct satirical pieces from *Life* magazine: **Top cartoon ("Comparative Evolution"):** A visual pun showing a stagecoach full of well-dressed passengers pulled by horses, with the caption "The Monk: and after all I've done to make them a credit to the family!" The joke plays on Darwin's theory of evolution, sarcastically suggesting humans have "evolved" from monkeys—but modern society remains chaotic and undignified. **Bottom section ("Temperance"):** Satirizes the Women's Christian Temperance Union's crusade against alcohol. The text mocks wealthy women's hypocrisy regarding champagne while advocating temperance. The accompanying sketch shows a child with a dog, captioned "Probably Not"—a young girl unable to coax obedience from her pet, suggesting women reformers are similarly ineffective at controlling social behavior. Both pieces critique contemporary moral reform movements through humor and irony.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
The Monk: In Memoriam. TR proposal to erect a monument to the memory of Shakespeare comes none too soon, The monument erected by himself, namely, the Eng- lish language, has been mutilated by Vandals out of all semblance of its original beauty, Nobody speaks the speech as he pronounced it to us, and as for the writing of it, we are almost as far afield. The fact is, to be quite blunt, unless something garish and obtrusive is made out of granite or, bronze and set up somewhere right away, Shakespeare will presently have been forgotten. Is there a single cigar named for him? Orahat? Ora collar? These things ignificant. istrue we have now and thenareviv- al of Shakespeare, whereby he is suffi- ciently revived to turn in his grave, no doubt, but withal left deader than ever. A public made fastidious by the Girl from Any Old Where, the Rococco Brothers in Gehenna, and McNamara's Row of Tin Babies is not likely to be COMPARATIVE EVOLUTION. AND AFTER ALL I'VE DONE TO MAKE THEM A CREDIT'TO THE FAMILY! of modern stagecraft, and naturally exclaims: ‘t Who is de guy, anyhow?" Temperance. Champagne-bottle shoulders are coming in again.—Fashion Note. ONSTANTLY recurring hints of the existence of the drink-habit among women of the leisure classes are truly disquicting. Where there is so much smoke, there surely is some fire. In the meanwhile, The Ladies’ Home Journal and the Women's Christian Temperance Union, the chief props of morality in our country, perhaps, are quarreling as to which of them first discovered alcohol lurking in patent medicines. Were it not more to the interest of temperance for them to kiss and make up, and together go after the champagne-bottle shoulders ? If it prove already too late to head these off wholly, it may still be possible to compel them to be modified into pop, or, at worst, good, pure, beer-bottle shoulders. Half a loaf is better than no loaf at all. touched by the spectacle of a sixteenth century poet tricked out in the gewgaws. PROBABLY NOT. 1 AIN'T A-GOIN’ TO TIE NO TIN CAN TO MIS TAIL. MONEST, 1 AIN'T. Patsy: comicbooks.com