Life — February 7, 1907 — page 25: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

for an instant. There were voices—the voices of Witherby himself and of Mrs. Witherby. They were rather high. “Tha right,” exclaimed Wither- by, “always quoting Dimpleton—always comparing him with me. He’s a saint. I'm a devil. He ought to live with you awhile. He’s got such a fine wife, no wonder he’s good.” “He'd be good anyway,” retorted Mrs. Witherby hotly. “He's naturally so. He’s”—— Dimpleton drew his willing wife away. Silently and swiftly they backed off the piazza, “Let's go back home,” he whispered. “All right,” said Mrs, Dimpleton. “I guess we'll enjoy each other’s society more than if we hadn’t come. Don’t you, my dear?” T.L.M. The Gatun Gamble HAIRMAN SHONTS, of the Canal Commission, reports to the Senate Committee on Interoceanic Canals his entire satisfaction with the borings in the Gatun dam site. The foundation will be safe, he says. That’s nice, but it would be interest- ing to know what a guarantee company would charge to guarantee that there ever will be a dam on the Gatun site, or any Gatun dam at all. ‘The canal will probably be cut through sometime in the course of the next twenty- five years, at a cost of at least a bi dollars, but what sort of a canal it will be is still a pure gamble and is likely to be for years tocome. At present the au- thorities have guessed that a lock canal is preferable. The next set are as likely as not to guess that a sea-level canal is better. The whole enterprise is more speculative than a horse-race. * LTP E : The Issue in New York THERE is food for thought in a brief dialogue which appears credited to the Philadelphia Bulletin, to wit “What is New York’s motto, Johnny?” “Sawdust.” “Now, Johnny, what do you mean?” “Excuse me, cher, I got me trolley twisted. ‘Excelsior’ is what I wuz intendin’ to say.” New York may have sawdust Senators and a considerable proportion of sawdust in its State Legislature, but to all appear- ances it has acquired an Excelsior Gov- ermor. ‘ Line up, Voters of the Empire State. Which are you for, “Excelsior” or saw- dust? ATE advices are to the effect that the Department of Agriculture has grap- pled definitely with the difficulty of de- fining whisky, for the purposes of the Pure Food Law. Thomas & Kempis declared that he would rather feel com- punction than be able to define it, and got out of it that way, but the Depart- ment of Agriculture is of sterner stuff and will resort to no evasions. This is fortu- nate, because whisky is much more im- portant, commercially, than compunc- tion. The One Exception “J SEE everything in this New York hotel is sterilized—even the air.” “Yes—everything but the guests.”” 201 Playing with Divorce RIAL divorce is a novelty reported from Spokane. An aspiring couple in that city propose to experiment with it fora year. If they like living apart better than living together they think they will get.a real divorce. Apparently, they have no children, It seems free from some strong prac- tical objections to trial marriage, but it involves the trial-marriage idea. The dif- ference is that it is an agreement to re- gard a marriage that exists as an experi- ment, whereas trial marriage would be an agreement to regard a marriage that is about to exist as an experiment. What will happen at the end of the year if one of the parties is in favor of re- suming the marital state and the other is opposed ? Go ’long with trial divorce! It is of no use except for freaks. Marriage is not suited to be a plaything. Neither is di- vorce. BEFORE AND AFTER SHAKESPEARE TO THE CONTRARY comicbooks.com