Life, 1905-03-02 · page 13 of 44
Life — March 2, 1905 — page 13: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
**Top Cartoon: "Waking Up the Wrong Porcupine"** This appears to be visual commentary on naive optimism. A figure labeled "Life" shields itself while encountering a spiky porcupine—suggesting that cheerful, Pollyanna-ish attitudes about existence will inevitably encounter harsh reality. **"The Song of a Silly Optimist" (poem)** The text mocks blind optimism by referencing pessimistic philosophers (Ibsen, Tolstoy, Schopenhauer) while the speaker insists everything—even crimes and meanness—stems from "exuberance and fun." The satire is clear: this optimist is willfully delusional. **Bottom Image: "The Sacrifice to the Minotaur"** This classical allusion depicts a minotaur (half-man, half-bull) as a god receiving sacrifice, with cherubs attending. The subtitle explicitly identifies it as "a suggestion for a mural decoration for the New York Stock Exchange"—bitterly satirizing Wall Street as a bloodthirsty monster demanding human sacrifice. The joke: the stock market is a modern Minotaur devouring victims.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
WAKING UP THE WRONG POKCUTINE The Song of a Silly Optimist. I" just a silly Optimist with cheerfulness galore, Let Ibsen, Tolstoi, Schopenhauer depict our life as dark, ce isa lark, For I'm tired of hear ple say that everything's a bore, But I cannot help believing I'm tired of melancholy mo, nd so T point with pride ‘That all the crimes and mea To the awe-inspiring axiom that Lami satisfied. Are committed in a spirit of exuberance and fun. And there’ And there So 1 find In the ph THE SACRIFICE TO THE MINOTAUR A SUGGESTION FOR A MURAL DECORATION FOR THE NEW YORK STOCK EXCHANGE sthat in this world are done 24) comicbooks.com