Life, 1906-10-25 · page 8 of 24
Life — October 25, 1906 — page 8: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
The page contains two distinct pieces: **"The Professional Humorist"** (text article) discusses comedians who earn their living through humor but paradoxically struggle financially due to overusing their wit in daily life, leaving nothing fresh for their professional work. **"Seeing Heaven"** (cartoon) depicts an elderly woman fishing, with the caption "The Old Lady Whose Children Didn't Want Her Around." The satire targets callous treatment of elderly parents—the implication being she's fishing (or waiting) for death as preferable to being unwanted by her own children. This reflects early 20th-century social anxieties about family obligation and abandonment of aging relatives. The accompanying "Philadelphia" poem by Felix Carmen is unrelated social commentary on that city.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
“Go WEST, YOUNG MAN, CO WEST" —Horace Greeley Philadelphia HILADELPHIA, ‘tis said— Truth or not, it is a pit Being practically dead, Is a well-laid-out old city. One, perhaps, might get along For a portion of a day there, But there would be something wrong With a man who liked to stay there. Philadelphia is where Social rules are very rigid; Ancestors one must have there, Otherwise one finds it frigid: That one figures in “Who's Who” Counts not one way or another, It is necessary to Know one’s great-great-great-grand- mother. Philadelphia is clean, But it makes a mortal shiver For the truth, when he has seen Water from the Schuylkill River; ‘That this liquid ever could Cleanse a thing, one cannot think i: Yet the natives find it good, And they bathe in it and drink it. Philadelphia just now Shows a sign of some improvement; As for Gas we must allow It betrays an upward movement: Weaver's got some grafters out And, for all it is but recent, Soon the cry will be, no doubt, “Philadelphia is decent!” Felix Carmen, *LIFE.- The Professional Humorist ROFESSIONAL humorists are get- ting to be so common that it is almost impossible to pick up a paper without being saddened by their presence. At one time they were isolated, but of late years they have banded together and send forth their jokes from a ‘solid phalanx. Professional humorists, as a rule, live by their wits, That is why they have so little in the bank. They marry easily and are addicted to the habit of having children, this being a seeming necessity for the proper promulgation of their jokes. A common accusation against them is that they take life too seriously, and their professional spirit preventsthem from extracting enough humor from it. Professional humorists are much like other people. They fall into habits. If by any chance one of them originates a new joke, the rest pounce upon him and tear it away. The motto of the professional humorist is: “A short life and a sad one.” A Connoisseur IRST MILLIONAIRE: How can you tell a genuine “old master” from a bogus? SEconp MILLIONAIRE: Easy enough —everything that costs over ten thousand dollars is bogus! SEEING HEAVEN THE OLD LADY WHOSE CHILDREN DIDN'T WANT HER AROUND comicbooks.com