Life, 1907-04-04 · page 42 of 48
Life — April 4, 1907 — page 42: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page is primarily **advertisements** (Swiss hotel, real estate, wine), but includes a lengthy humorous story about the poet **John Greenleaf Whittier**. The satire depicts two overeager female admirers visiting Whittier's home in Amesbury. They enthusiastically demand to see him, insisting he "simply must" receive them despite his known dislike of such visits. The joke's punchline: the "quiet man on the barrel" they've been speaking with *is actually Whittier himself*—and he deliberately avoids them by implying he's "not at home." The humor works on multiple levels: the women's obliviousness, Whittier's polite deception, and the irony that he successfully dodges admirers through their own ignorance. The clerk's final comment about exercise being "good for stout ladies" adds a mild body-shaming joke typical of the era. The anecdote illustrates Whittier's legendary skill at avoiding unwanted hero-worship while maintaining courtesy.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
SWITZERLAND For Health and Pleasure Visit ST. MORITZ, Engadine, 6,000 feet above sea, The exhilarating Alpine air combined with the sunshine and blue sky of ST. MORITZ promote renewed health and vigor. GRAND HOTEL ST. MORITZ THE HOTEL DE LUXE OF THE ALPS Newly opened in December, 1905. Contains 300 rooms. Private apartments with bath and dressing-rooms. Thorough quiet secured by double passages. Grand Society Room, with most beautiful views on the lake and mountains. arrangements. Most modern sanitary and ventilating Lift to all floors. DAILY CONCERTS BY THE MILAN ORCHESTRA TENNIS, GOLF, CROQUET, BOATING ON THE LAKE, TROUT FISHING. DELIGHTFUL WALKS AND DRIVES For Illustrated Booklet and Tariff address THE MANAGER Care of Lire, Pestisinxe Co. +17 West 51st Street, New York Private Stable OR SALE—On Fifty-second Street, between Sixth and Seventh Avenues, a new thoroughly equipped private stable 25 fect wide; accommodations for seven horses; with two box stalls. Up to date in every particular; clectricity, gas, telephone, ete. The best lighted stable in the city. Address. J. EDGAR LEAYCRAFT & CO. 19 West Forty-second St. New York An Attractive Opportunity For two suitable persons, preferably young professional men, to join with four others in acquiring desirable summer or all-the- year homes in the highest class strictly country neighborhood, convenient to sta- tion; Westchester County, within hour of New York. Cash outlay for house and three to seven acres, only $2,000 each, with every prospect of immediate increase in value. Full particulars from F.S. B. 17 West Thirty-first St. New York City HE WAS NOT AT HOME The extreme distaste of the modest Quaker poet, John Greenleaf Whittier, for foolish hero-worship, and the skill which he attained in politely cluding too enthusiastic admirers, have been exemplified in many ancedotes. Even now, however, new ones occasionally come to light. One such recently related tells how two women, of the type at once sentimentally gushing and Jent of their own importance, visited Amesbury to seek the poet in his home They went astray in their search for his house, and bustled into a small general store to be redirected. ‘The clerk, smiling a little queerly, informed them that the Whittier house was near by-—but a few steps around the corner. One of the women, a big, florid, overdressed being with languishing eyes, caught the smile, and clasped her hands with a rapt air. “Oh, don’t you think he'll see us?” she demanded. “He simply must! We've heard he doesn't like to, but he must; we won't go away till he does. We've thought up ever so many things we want to ask him." ‘The clerk, still smiling, glanced casually toward a quiet man in a shadowy corner, sitting on a barrel, surrounded by a group of other leisurely customers. They had all been talking politics together, village-fashion, when the strangers came in “Think he will?” said the clerk. “Well.” replied the man on the barrel, hesitatingly, “thee knows Greenleaf does not find it easy to refuse a lady. I think perhaps he will—if he is at home.” ‘The women bustled away again, excited and expectant. and a chuckle went round among the laughing men. ‘The man oa the barrel, with a trace of apology in his tones, rose from his perch to go. “They will not waste five minutes,” he murmure such a little way. Besides, thee knows very weil t is a good thing for stout ladies.” “That's so, "Me. Whittier,” assented the clerk.—Youth's Companion. ‘Tne. French have not only been conscious of their own wit but at times they have been conscious of it to the blind exclusion of the wit of other nations. Some of the greatest French humorists have been utterly unable to appreciate or even to understand the humor of other peoples. When the work of Mark ‘Twain was shown to the late Mphonse Daudet, the | creator of Tartarin was quite honest in saying that he could see nothing amusing in Tom Sawyer or Huckleberry Finn, Renan believed so implicitly in the supremacy of the French comic genius that he maintained that, whatever their speech, all nations should be taught to laugh in French, Chamfort said of the old régime that it was “an absolute monarchy tempered by good say Even in adversity the French have never for gotten to laugh and have always demanded that they be amused. In the days of the Revolution, in one column of the paper would appear the lists of the victims of the guillotine and in another | the evening's entertainments. If you will look through the Parisian press during the terrible months of the siege and the | Commune, you will find no diminution in the amount of jokes printed. —Outlovk. HINCKEL& €%. WINCKLER y Frankfurt a/Main Finest Rhine and Moselle Wines Grand Prize St. Louis 1904 Send for Catalogue of Specialties C. H. ARNOLD & CO. (E. W. Sayder, Pres.) Sole Agents New Yur« comicbooks.com