Life, 1906-06-28 · page 17 of 25
Life — June 28, 1906 — page 17: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page presents two character sketches from Oliver Herford's satirical alphabet series mocking social types: **"G - The Grumbler Gruff"**: A perpetually dissatisfied person who complains about everything, even paradise itself. The joke is that no circumstance—not even Heaven—could satisfy him; he'd grumble about his halo or harp. **"H - The Humorist Plum"**: A would-be wit so self-conscious about humor that he sits glumly preparing clever remarks, waiting for the "opportune moment" to deliver them. The satire targets people who are unfunny because they're too contrived and self-aware about trying to be funny. The accompanying text discusses recent book releases, including criticism of a reverend author's patronizing sex-education work delivered via phonograph to youth. The page satirizes recognizable personality types and contemporary pretension rather than specific political figures.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
oe Ol AN ALPHABET OF BORES IS the Grumbler Gruff Whom everything puts If perchance he shall gain Heaven’s Gate, he'll complain Of his Halo or Harp, like enough. Under the title of Euripides and the Spirit of his Dramas Mr. James Loeb publishes a translation of the late Paul Decharme’s critique of the Greek tragic poet and his work. The book is excel- lently printed, the translation is admir- able and the English version will be most welcome to students of the Greek drama. It is divided into two parts, the first devoted to an attempt to deduce the philosophy and personal tenets of Eu- ripides from the text of his plays and is, like most similar attempts to gather pears from peach trees, an abortive under- taking. The second part is a spirited and able analysis of the plays themselves and constitutes the chief value of the work, Mr. Pratt is an amusing story by Joseph C. Lincoln of an experiment in living the natural life made by two young men of means and of distinctly “un- By Ottver HERFORD H IS a Humorist glum; in a huff; Why sits he so doleful and dumb? He’s inventing some gay Impromptu to say When the opportune moment shall come. natural” tendencies. Like most of Mr. Lincoln’s stories it has a strong flavor of salt water about it and its characters are mostly “characters.” It is a readable skit with considerable humor in it and some boldly sketched portraits. What a Young Boy Ought to Know is the untruthful title of a series of dis- closures supposed, by the gratuitous up- to-dateness of the reverend author, to have been made to the receiver of a phonograph and sent by mail to a curi- ous young acquaintance. Starting with the assumption that there are certain questions which the young are prone to ask and that these questions should re- ceive simple and undeceptive answers, Sylvanus Stall, D.D., the promulgator of the volume, proceeds to patronize God and to put prurient ideas into the minds of His diminutive images. The notion of these “talks,” reeking with that smug consciousness of evil which only the unco’ guid can achieve, being delivered in the self-complacent nasal of the phonograph to a gaping circle of enquir- ing youth, is enough to make the har- dened unregenerate put back their cars and show their teeth. 7 Kerfoot. The Question of Our Speech. By Henry James (Houghton, Mifflin and Company. $1.00.) The Bishop of Cottontown. By Jobn Trotwood Moore. (The John C. Winston Company, Philadel phia) Concerning Pauland Fiametta. By Mrs. L. Allen Harker. (Charles Scribner's Sons. $1.50.) A Lame Dog's Diary. By S. Macnaughton. (Dodd, Mead and Company. $1.50.) Euripides and the Spirit of his Dramas. By Paul Decharme. Translated by James Loeb. (The Mac millan Company. $3.00.) Mr. Pratt. By Joseph C. Lincoln. (A. S. Barnes and Company. $1.50.) What a Young Boy Ought to Know. By Sylvanus Stall, D.D. (The Vir Publishing Company. $1.00.) comicbooks.com