Life, 1906-03-22 · page 6 of 20
Life — March 22, 1906 — page 6: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This satirical piece critiques clergy who loudly oppose divorce while ignoring their own institutional failures. The poem describes churchmen blaming the Bible for rising divorces, calling it a "justice miscarriage," yet doing nothing substantive to prevent them. The cartoons depict clergymen in various states of hypocrisy: one pair of devils "dancing round the altar, emitting blue flame" illustrates the chaos clergy claim divorce causes; another shows a clergyman "degrading complacency" receiving "high praise." The satire's core message: churches organize boycotts and employ rhetoric about "sacraments" and "compliancy," but their real solution—lowering church contributions or reforming actual practices—never materializes. The clergy profit symbolically while accomplishing nothing practical.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
4 \ eminent SERVICE I. DITTIES & N DIvVORGE w= The Churchmen. & DIVORCES are on the increase! — help! help!" And brand hapless we They cry that but one thir To rob human wedlock They lump Fort rs They treat discot And laud any home The party th May still bind the “ Thev dance round the altar, emitting blue flame” They count it a sin, though, to use such a name As “contract” concerning the ma ge-game. For wedlock, they vow, is a sacrosanct rite, Whoever weds whom, and however they fight. omplacency” wins their high praise ize boycotts to hound divorcées. With vain holy-water, brute lust they would quench, And call it a sacrament, though it’s a stench ! And yet they all wonder and clamor, Ob, oh, Why do congregations keep dwindling so low ? We hire an enlarged comic opera choir ; We never allude to such things as hell-fire. ‘The downiest cushions are placed in each pew, All subjects unpleasant are strictly taboo, Yet, much as we shorten and sugar the pill, Or turn the church-service to pure vaudeville, Conversions grow rarer, collections more small * Degvading complacency ‘wins their high praise” We'll soon have to pay folks for coming at all.” comicbooks.com