Life, 1905-06-29 · page 17 of 29
Life — June 29, 1905 — page 17: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains **wartime social criticism** (likely WWI era, given references to modern warfare and aviation pioneers like Santos Dumont and Marconi). **"The Sport of Kings"** mocks war as entertainment for rulers who stay home while families lose fathers and husbands. The cartoon shows a woman cynically remarking to another about her multiple husbands—past, present, and future—suggesting women are commoditized casualties of male-driven warfare. **"The Young Fool and the Old"** attacks American Independence Day celebrations as recklessly dangerous, particularly criticizing adults who give children fireworks and explosives. The poem contrasts foolish children who accidentally injure themselves with deliberately negligent adults ("Old Fool") who enable the harm. The satire condemns the casual acceptance of Fourth of July casualties—burned children, lost eyes, deaths—as an acceptable price for tradition. Both pieces critique institutional violence: warfare and holiday customs that sacrifice vulnerable people.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Nowadays. NE woman thus wrote to another to come To her house to meet gentlemen three : Meet my Husband-that-\Was, and my Hus- band-that-ls, And my Husband-that's-Goiny-to-be, ‘Now, my Husband-that-Was is your Hu band-that-ls, And my Husband-that’s-Going-to-be ur Husband-that-W: band-that-Is May be yours at some time. Don’t you see ?” —and my Hus- The Sport of Kings. AR, in its supposed to have been reduced ultimate aspects, is to a science, and yet in many details it is sadly lacking. As carried on at present, wives an children are stripped of their hus- bands and fathers without notice, while the rulers stay at home and re- ceive deputatic game, rulers friendly, why ternational more or less not set “MADAME, YOU HAVE MY SY “DON'T BOTHER YOURSELF. CHANGE, 1 ASSURE Yo! PATHY.” 1 MARRIED FOR MONEY AND THIS IS AN -LIFE- apart a nation to make war upon, if not continually, at least at proper in- tervals? Then let those who desire to be shot and otherwise murdered be beforehand, with as little personal inconvenience to their fami- set aside lies as possible Every family should be given due notice, at least, that its m: to in prop is e taken from under it The spectacle of a trained nation, with an anise-sced bag tied to its tail, pursued by the Powers in full cry, ought to furnish amusement for at least a year and a half Favorite Flowers of Famous Fellows. President Roosevelt Santos Dumont, Poppies, with phlox. Halloon-vine, Marconi, Lipte Carnegie, Rockefeller, Simon Newcomb, Anthony Comstock, Flowering currant ; Speedwell Forg not, Golden glow. Moonflower, Primroses. AGREEARLE LOVE OF coUNTRY. The Young Fool and the Old. HERE'S no fool like a young fool When fireworks are concerned— Behold them all, the victims small, With hands and faces burned, Behold the lamed and killed and + Their needless sufferings : There's no fool like the Old Fool Who gives a child such things. med, There's no fool like a young fool In glorious July To fire a bomb and lose a And tear away an eye, To touch a light to dynamite And scatter death and noise : Phere’s no fool like the Old Foot Who gives a child such toys. mb There's no fool like a young fool To make the Fourth a crime, When every nurse and every hearse Is working overtime, When East and West and North and South The lists appalling grow : There's no fool like the Old Fool Who thinks a child should kno: There's no fool like the young fool Who smells the powder smoke ; Rut the awful play that mars the Day Has ceased to be a joke, Yet Satan tempts the Old Foo! ‘To chuckle ‘neath his breath And put among the heedless young The instruments of death, Wallace Irwin, comicbooks.com