Life, 1904-12-29 · page 6 of 21
Life — December 29, 1904 — page 6: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
**"The Passing of the Year"** is a satirical illustration depicting Death as a skeletal figure shepherding away various allegorical characters representing the old year—including figures labeled Grandfather, Grandmother, Father, Mother, Son, and Daughter. The central skeleton conducts this family toward darkness, symbolizing the year's end. The accompanying text features dramatic monologues from these characters confessing sins and regrets—theft, shame, guilt, unwailing penitence—suggesting moral reckoning as the year closes. Below are two brief comedic sketches: "A Sudermann Play" mocks elaborate theatrical drama, while "In 1909" presents two Jersey residents debating whether removing an appendix requires medical necessity or is merely "customary." The page satirizes both mortality's inevitability and contemporary medical practices through humor and allegory.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
ry The Tropics. ERDANT shores and waters calm, Sunlit days and starry nights, Silent, swaying groves of palm, Mosquito bites. A Sudermann Play. s LISTENING TO Dy, Wen You Can Reap It BoiLep Down Into Tues Few Lines? (SCENE: Breakfast-room ina house in East Prussia, West Hoboken, or any old place. Family of six persons seated at the table, con- suming frankfurters and sauerkraut, with beer and schnapps on the side. Suddenly they all stop eating, lay their heads on the table and groan dismally, Then they speak in quick succession.) GRANDFATHER. ) GRANDMOTHER, sad! | wretched sorrowful ! woful! melancholy ! miserable ! i I feel so Davonrer.....J GRANDFATHER: Remorse seizes me ! Sixty- four years ago I did a foul, foul deed! My THE PASSING OF THE YEAR. dear grandmother, now long dead, was teach- ing me my catechism, and I put out my tongue at her! Wo is me! GRANDMOTHER: Let me speak now! My soul is stained with sin! When I was six years old I stole the butter off the nursery table and ate it all up! FATHER: Confound your paltry revela- tions—listen to me! My conscience is black, black! When I was a little boy I once threw astone atacat! Oh, horror, horror! MoTHer: I must speak, or my heart will burst! Long, long ago I told a fib to my nurse! All my life has been darkened by un- availing penitence ! Sow: 1, and I only, am the vilest of sin- ners! T inherit all your sins, and I have quaint new ones of my own! Shame and guilt over- whelm me! DavucuTer: My grandmother was a thief, and so were all my maiden aunts, and so am I! A fatal heritage of wo is mine! (Jonah! GRANDFATHER, | | hoodoo ! GRraxpMoTHER. FATHER «0.0... blighted life! Morne. | walking pestilence! Sox . {aed one! Davonte! calamity child | (AU beat their heads several times on the table, writhing and groaning.) bear itt | endure it! submit to it! tolerate it! Sox. “t put upwith itt DavuGHTER J stand it! GRANDFATHER. drown myself! GRANDMOTHER. { panacdteeyscitt FATHER... Tam | shoot myself! MoTHE: going to} hang myself! Son. | stab myself! DAUGHTER... (poison myself! (All rush from the room in different direc» tions. Slow curtain.) GRANDFATHER. GRANDMOTHER. FATHER... MoTHER, dieaanit In 1909. | Eee JERSEYITE: They say the Hudson is full of ice. Seconp JeRsryiTE: I thought as I was going home yesterday that I no- ticed a coolness overhead. « OCTOR, is it absolutely neces- sary to remove my appendix?" ‘Well, it’s customary.”” comicbooks.com