Life, 1906-05-31 · page 7 of 22
Life — May 31, 1906 — page 7: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
The main cartoon depicts an old man in ragged clothes confronting a well-dressed gentleman beneath a large tree, with a bicycle and abandoned items visible. The caption references the man being called a "chauffeur" despite driving a "push-cart," implying he claims false status or education from "a correspondence school." The page contains three articles: "Money and Divorce" discusses English divorce law and parliamentary proceedings; "Let the Guilty Suffer" critiques Dr. Crapsey, a clergyman involved in controversy who abandoned his duties; and "A San Francisco Incident" appears to advertise legal services. The satire targets social pretension, religious hypocrisy, and possibly correspondence-school fraud—common early-20th-century American concerns about false credentials and status-climbing among the working classes.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
The Man Up the Tree: AND YOU CALL YOURSELY A CHAUFYEUR! WHY, YOU BLITHERING SON OF A PUSH-CART, WHERE DID YOU LEARN? “AT A CORRESPONDENCE SCHOOL, SIR" Money and Divorce S MANY of Lirr’s readers are interested in the divorce question the following, from Law Notes, may be worth reading: It will be remembered that before 1857 the only absolute divorces obtainable in England were by special Act of Parliament, a condition which made divorce a luxury for the rich only and denicd it to the poorer classes of society. In that year a bill was passed through the efforts of Sir Richard Bethell, the Attorney-General, over the zealous opposition of Mr. Gladstone and the High Church party. The immediate cause of the bill is said to have been a sentence pronounced by Mr. Justice Maule upon a prisoner for bigamy. ‘The judge, with grave irony, addressed the prisoner thus: “Prisoner nse of bigamy, that is to say, of ive, though it is true she has het man. You have, therefore, Iso acted ht to have at the bar: You have been convii ou should then have brought an mmon law, and recovered, as no doubt you would have ast your wife's paramour. Armed with these decrees, you shoukl have approached the legislature and obtained an Act of P: which would have rendered you free and legally competent to marry 1 whom you have taken on yourself to marry with no such sanction. It that these proceedings would have cost you many hundreds of poun you probably have not as many pence. Buf the law kn distinction between rich and poor, The sentence of the court upon you, therefore, is that you be imprisoned h period has already been exceeded, as you have been in cust ¢ commencement of the assizes.” person quite true whereas Let the Guilty Suffer HE trial of Dr. Crapscy seems to bring considerable ridicule upon the Protestant Episcopal Church. ‘This is unju Dr. Crapsey, as a clergyman of that church, agreed to be ‘or appear to beli certain things. That is, he agreed to stop thinking for himself. But if he is one of those persons who enjoy a fresh point of view now and then he should have joined some other profession in which original effort is a step- ping-stone to further success and not considered a breach of faith—such as law, medicine, art, literature, science or almost y kind of business. As it is, he has been very naughty ana should be made to suffer. A San Francisco Incident =FORE the ruins of the city here cooled men began clamoring for office and warehouse room in the saved residence section. One lawyer, who had grown a bit tired of repeated questioning as to where he intended to put out his sign, appeared upon the street one morning with a piece of paper pinned across the front of his hat. It bore this advertise- ment: comicbooks.com