Life, 1905-03-02 · page 38 of 44
Life — March 2, 1905 — page 38: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This satirical poem addresses a contemporary controversy: forty-seven theaters have refused to present plays by or featuring **Metcalfe** (likely referring to a specific playwright or performer of the era) due to his **anti-Semitic views**. The satire works on two levels: First, it mocks Metcalfe's position—while he claims indifference ("thinks it's part of life"), the boycott forces him to choose between his prejudices and his livelihood. Second, it suggests this may actually benefit audiences. The poem implies Metcalfe traffics in lowbrow theater ("plays that most depend on legs"), so losing access to his work means theaters will instead stage Shakespeare and serious drama rather than morally compromised entertainment. The joke: his bigotry inadvertently improves public taste. The poem credits the boycott with preventing the "bowdlerizing" (censoring) of classics and keeping them from being "shelved" like forgotten works. This reflects early 20th-century American debates over artistic freedom, Jewish civil rights, and theater standards.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
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