Life, 1906-11-08 · page 9 of 30
Life — November 8, 1906 — page 9: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains a John Lamax poem titled "Childless, Unloved, Unfed" (illustrated by a sketch of a distressed figure at a doorway) addressing social hypocrisy toward the poor and marginalized. The poem questions Christian morality—asking why society offers "stones" instead of food, forces the poor into darkness, and denies basic dignity to the destitute. Below, the "Queercities" section critiques a New York asylum case involving a woman institutionalized for allegedly murdering her nurse, and discusses Thomas Dixon's race-riot drama "The Clansman" (soon to premiere in Atlanta). The piece argues for respecting even those society deems "crazy" or dangerous, as we claim to value freedom. The satire targets moral inconsistency in American civilization.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
* Le “Task for food, you offer a stone. If I leave his hateful bed, You send me out in the dark alone, Childless, unloved, unfed, “In barren travail’s discontent, Not widow, maid nor wi Such liberty were banishmen The Wandering Jew's free life. | “What crime have I done, thus bereft? Does Heaven so abhor it, That first I must endure the theft, And then do penance for it? “Forbid the divorcée remarry? Why not take just one more step, And force the wretch to hari-kari Upon her husband’s doorstep? “Why did you rescue our poor mare Before poor Bill was dead ? Must I go homeless, just because I’m not a quadruped ?”” ‘The parson stammered, “Can truth be hammered Into a woman’s brains ?— However spouses grow unenamored, The sacrament remains! “ As for the horse—well, it's a horse, A woman's but a woman; The devil ’s self-devised divorce, Remarriage is inhuman. “Good-day, madame!""—accenting “dame” The visit to determine— He gave the door a dulcet slam, And went back to his sermon. John Lomax. Queeronties "[ HERE are very curious peculiarities in our civilization. A crazy woman in a New York State asylum for the crimi- nal insane stabbed to death with a scissors a young woman, her nurse. It was her sixth murder. Of course, the poor, demented creature ought to get a hypodermic of morphine that would relieve her of the burden of her dangerous and deplorable existence, but our civilization could not counte- nance that. She must be kept along alive at whatever cost or hazard till she wears out ‘The papers say that Thomas Dixon’s race-riot drama, “The Clansman,” is booked soon to appear at Atlanta. Probably Thomas won't be allowed to show there, but isn’t it queer that he should be allowed to go around loose with his perdition play in a country where there are restrictions on the use and transportation of dynamite! We let Thomas go loose and abuse his liberties because we respect freedom, just as we keep the poor crazy woman alive because we hold sacred the vital spark even when it ought to be quenched. And to think that Thomas Platt is still Senator from New York! That is mortal “owaee {| ne q REMARRIAGL i f queer, too, and passing strange it is that William Hearst should be the candidate of what was once the Democratic party for Governor of New York. pretty rum contrivance our civilization is, but, after all, it is, in a way, a merit of it that it lets the unexpected happen. Maybe a perfectly rational and orderly civilization would be tiresome. Ours isn’t. Its y imperfections make it stimulating. A Bad Night NCLE REUBEN was taking his first ocean voyage down to Florida. “Did you sleep well, uncle?” they asked him after the first night out. “Not perticler,” he replied. ‘‘Them bustles ye hev t’ tie under yer arms kinda keep a feller frum restin’. woo the gods would destroy they sometimes, in periods of unexampled prosperity, find it more convenient to make rich. comicbooks.com