Life — January 26, 1905 — page 5: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

Betty’s Cheque. HEN Betty draws a cheque, a little frown Bursts into crumpled bloom upon her brow, As though a rose might seek to disavow Its rose-hood and its tenderness put down, With coldest dignity. With finger now Her tresses brown tips she touches, soft; and She opes the little book and wonders how Men do it—easy—with the date and all In the right places? S. she dips the pe: And dates the number blank; with flourish tall And angular writes Thursday—thinks—and then She fills it for a thousand—meaning ten, ‘Then signs her father’s well-known, honored serawl, And sighs and blots it! Nothing but the bloom Of wrinkled brow to indicate the wreck Sheconsummates. Ab, drums should boom, And fussy bank cashiers be hurled to doom, And harps should tink—when Betty draws a cheque. Kate Masterson, “ALL THE WORLD'S A STAGE.” LIFES CHRISTMAS PRES- ENT CONTEST. ANNOUNCEMENT OF WINNER HE, question, Are Christmas Pres- ents a Blessing or a Nuisance? was recently propounded in Lirr, a reward of fifty dollars being offered for the best answer. Lire takes pleasure in announcing that the winner of the prize is Mr. Barrett Eastman, of the Chicago Journal, the author of contributi Number 1. A Letter. EAR LIFE: There you go persecuting the automobilists Tam surprised that, with all the attention you have given this problem, you have not seen more nearly to the bottom, wherein lies the fact that the city of New York suffers from reckless automobile driving probably more than any other place in the world ; and that it is due, not to any particular defects in the temperament of automo- bilists as a class, but to the characteristic spirit of “every man for himself and damn everybody else,” that the people of your town s ow in all thei ns towards others, whether in a ballroom, dey goods store, of a street car. Now Iam not calling New York names because I live somewhere else, for I feel about as im: hat home there as anywhere ; but I do th k the man. ners of the people in public are exceptionally bad. The automobilists are no exception, and frighten Fe people, if they do not actually do more dam- age, than those of any other part of the country, just as your cabmen, motormen, elevator boys, 0} any other kind of men an they are elsewh Therefore I would su boys, are more insolent fest, should you still deem it necessary for your own safety to harangue the avtomobilists, that you qualify your remarks by “in New York,” for nowhere else does there exist the extent of abuse you describe, Further. more, you are a very influential publication, and this anti-automobile crusade that you have started and nursed along, is being carried to sufficiently absurd lengths in some places already without any need of your pushing it further. Such a joke for New Jersey,the bunco corporation State, in a burst, of self-righteous wrath to reduce its speed li thereby inconveniencing the millionaires whose wealth has, in so many cases, been basking in the sunshine of its favorable incorporation laws. Very truly yours, Demarest Lloyd. Bostox, MAss., JAN. 6, 1905. comicbooks.com