Life, 1905-12-07 · page 27 of 60
Life — December 7, 1905 — page 27: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
**"An Eminent Man"** satirizes prominent figures who maintain respectable public images while engaging in questionable dealings. The poem, attributed to Wallace Irwin, mocks how society blindly trusts "Eminent Men" in prestigious clubs and positions, assuming their status guarantees virtue. The caricatured face suggests a specific public figure (likely referencing a contemporary scandal), and the satire climaxes when such a man faces a jury of peers who protect him to avoid "imminent disgrace"—suggesting corruption within elite circles protects the powerful. **"The Home-Made Barrel Chair"** is instructional humor showing how to construct furniture from household materials, relevant to early-20th-century DIY culture. **"A Risk of the Desert"** offers frontier wisdom about navigation: follow wagon tracks when lost, but beware if the original outfit perished. **"A Token"** is a brief domestic joke about gift-giving and marital diplomacy during Christmas season. The page's core message critiques how eminence and social position shield wrongdoing from accountability.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
IS “IPERS An Eminent Man. ss ates 679 THE HOME-MADE BARREL CHAIR. (“Daring the past few weeks many Em Men have become merely ays President Schurman of Cornell E was an Eminent Man * In a circle of emi With a: ner dub eminent face and an er place In a dozen eminent clubs, And Sunday morning the whole world knew The sermon preached at his emi- nent pew, He held an Eminent Job— Position of * great respect,” And his every act, "twas an eminent fact, Was eminently correct : For who would expect an unscru- pulous plan To emanate from an Eminent Man? So, in his eminent way, He started an eminent deal And he graced the same with his VN eminent name, (For Eminent Men don't steal), As he blessed the world with And lived in a princely pre-e Buta light on his Eminent Life That many a quirk in his eminent work y nifty ce be dropping the swag In his eminently respectable bay ? Soa jury of Eminent Men, They sat on his eminent case, In order to spare their emi ent frive From an imminent disgrac * For honor,” they . should be now and then Shown among Thieves and Eminent Men So he still isan Eminent Man, Whose shadow covers the globe, While the meek revere occasional smear nt robe— “ For what is Fame 2?" “+ ut an Eminent Notoriety ? to me, Wallace Irwin, A Risk of the Desert. LD-TIMER (to newcomer in the Nevada Desert): ang feller, let me give ye a pointer that allus works in this hyere desert of ourn, Take my advice an’ ye're safe fer sartin. When ye're lost pretty nigh all in, why, friend, jest simply foller the first wagon track ye come to. Don’t never double back on it, br along in one direction important thing, and ye'll shore after a pause and a solemn strcke of his goatee, “ unless th outfit that made that there track perished ahead of y ke A Token. & MILLIONAIRE'S WIFE: I'll bet you didn’t pay over thirty thousand dollars for those diamonds. Tue Mittionatre: Now, don't be cross, dear. I thought I ought to bring you home something for Christmas. A® ounce of intention is worth a ton of bluff, comicbooks.com