Life, 1907-12-12 · page 15 of 20
Life — December 12, 1907 — page 15: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
The main cartoon depicts the Statue of Liberty inverted upside-down, with her torch pointing downward and the New York skyline below. The caption reads: "WELCOME TO OUR CITY / WHERE CHRISTIAN CHILDREN MAY NOT SING CHRISTIAN SONGS IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS." This satirizes a real controversy: a Hebrew teacher (Miss Hirschberg) allegedly censored a Christian student (Grace Thompson) from reciting "Christ save us all" from "The Wreck of the Hesperus" during a public school recitation—an incident reported in the New York Sun. The inverted Liberty Statue symbolizes American values turned upside-down by religious censorship in public institutions. The satire mocks the perceived threat to Christian expression in secular schools, presenting it as un-American. The accompanying humorous anecdotes about financial hardship and vanity undercut the seriousness, suggesting Life magazine found the religious controversy both earnest and somewhat ridiculous.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
731 The New Jerusalem HE following extract bears some relation to the picture on this page: Grace Thompson, the daughter of Pastor Thompson, of the Park Avenue Methodist Church, was reciting in the public school on East Eighty-fifth Strect. She se- lected the “Wreck of the Hesper- us” and came to the line: “Christ save usall from a death like this. “Cutthat out,” said Miss Hirsch- berg, the Hebrew teacher, when Christ was mentioned. ‘That was a great shock to the child—N. 1. Sun, A Depleted Treasury IFE: Haven't you any change about you? Huspanp: No, my dear. This morning the president of my bank borrowed my last quarter. Among the Elect wit a glad cry, the prom- inent official luoks up from his morning paper. “Good news, dear?” inquires the wife of his bosom. “The best in the world!” he replies, estatically. “Now I know that I am truly great.”” “Does the paper say so?” “Not in so many words, but its Washington correspondent has credited me with an anecdote that is at least two hundred years old!” With a shining face, his wife proudly kisses him, for well she knows that no man may real eminence until he has been made the peg upon which to hang a garment cut by some forgotten Joe Miller. Inscription for a Gift , LADY fair, accept this gift— A mirror—'tis not passing fair. The treasures of the world I'd sift For that which should be more than rare. And yet Jou may make of this thing The fairest gift that well could be. More beauty I could not well : bring— WELCOME TO OUR CITY Look in the mirror, now, and sce! WHERE CHRISTIAN CHILDREN MAY NOT SING CHRISTIAN §ONGS IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS W.D. Nesbit. comicbooks.com