Life, 1907-01-17 · page 17 of 60
Life — January 17, 1907 — page 17: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains three distinct pieces of satirical content: **1. "Growth of Western Cities"** — A humorous anecdote mocking the rapid, almost overnight expansion of towns on the American Western frontier. The joke: towns spring up so fast that railroad crews can barely keep track of them, suggesting both the chaotic development and the absurdity of frontier growth. **2. "Use for a Powerful Voice"** — Two brief anecdotes. The first depicts a woman flattering a famous Berlin opera singer to exploit his loud voice for calling a carriage—satirizing both pretentiousness and practical German humor. The second discusses American opera: a visiting Italian impresario (Titu Ricordi) expresses bewilderment that Americans, despite having excellent native singers, insist on hiring foreign performers with foreign names for prestige, mocking American cultural inferiority complex. **3. Miller Beer Advertisement** — Two hot air balloons bearing Miller brewery branding, with the caption "Up they go"—a straightforward product advertisement. The page primarily showcases Life's satirical humor targeting American frontier development, social pretension, and cultural snobbery.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Growth of Western Cities - APROPOS of the mushroom growth of new towns on the Western frontier, a locomotive the following: “One day I was driving my engine across the prairie when suddenly a considerable town loomed up ahcad where nothing had showed up the before. “What town’s this?’ says I to my fireman. “‘Blamed if I know,’ says Bill. ‘It wasn’t here when we went over the road yesterday.” “Well, I slowed down, and directly we pulled into the station, where over five hundred people were waiting on the platform to see the first train come in. “The conductor came along up frent and says to me: “Jim, first we know we'll be running by some important place. Get this town down on your list and I'll put a brakeman on the rear platform to watch out for towns that spring up After the train gets by!?”—Minne- apolis Journal. Use for a Powerful Voice A . THE close of a grand ball a celebrated actor of the Court Theatre in Berlin stands in the passage waiting for friends. A beautiful and fashionably dressed lady ap- proaches him and says: “Beg pardon, have T the honor to see before me our famous Herr Donner- stimme, whose powerful and sonorous voice I had the pleasure of admiring last night in ‘Macbeth?’ Might I ask you to do me a little favor?” “Tam quite at your service, madam.” “Then will you be good enough to call out in the street in your loudest tones for the carriage of Baroness Swartz ?””—Tit-Bits. HEN Henry W. Savage and Manager Ralph Edmunds were in P last summer, gath- ering a cast for “Madam Butterfly,” Jean De Reszke arranged a little “affair” at his home in order that Mr. Savage might hear some new voices. The Yankee Colonel tells of it: “Tn the course of our conversation I asked De Reszke: ‘Have you many Americans studying with you? “‘Some,’ he answered, ‘but I wish there were more.’ “Why ?? “Because they are the best. ‘The finest voices in the world come from America. The biggest, the purest, the most dramatic. I don’t know why it isso. I merely know that it is so.’ “During his visit to the United States, ‘Titu Ricordi said to me: ‘I cannot understand the temper of your people. To me they are a para- dox. Here in the United States you have greater demand for grand opera than in any other coun- try. Here, too, you have the best supply of nat- ural singers. Yet, instead of producing your musical classics in English, with casts of native singers, you go abroad and pay enormous prices for men and women with foreign names and for- eign titles. I presume that it is due to the same inexplicable national characteristic which dictates the publishing of your menu in languages which o0 per cent. of the diners cannot Puccini’s “ Butterfly,” by the w produced with Ricordi’s help this holiday season in Paris. —New York ning Sun. “Up they go.” MILLER’S MARK HANGS HIGH MILLER BREWING GO. MILWAUKEE.U.S.A. LIFE’S PRINTS Copyright, 194, by Lara Prntsemrse Compost TROUBLE WITH THE SPARKER Ajter W. Balfour Ker Photogravure in Sepia, 20 by 13 in. $1.00 LIFE PUBLISHING CO.,17W.31stSr..NEW YORK comicbooks.com