Life, 1908-01-09 · page 7 of 22
Life — January 9, 1908 — page 7: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains three distinct literary/humorous sections rather than political cartoons. The "Wisdom" section quotes someone choosing to stay in town rather than visit loved ones across a river ("For I live on the Erie"). The "Operatic" section satirizes conductor Oscar Hammerstein's season debut with soprano Mary Garden, mocking critical praise and advertising hype while suggesting the "ineffectual, insipid music" didn't live up to expectations. The illustration shows a figure at a rural cottage, accompanying a dialogue between "Bride of Some Months" and her husband about marital temperament and war service. The page is primarily satirical commentary on contemporary cultural figures and domestic life rather than political content. Without visible publication date context, precise historical references remain uncertain.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Wisdom VER the river, over the river, My loved ones beckon to me— But I guess, all things considered, that J will stay in town to-night, get a nice warm supper, go to the play, and put up at my club, rather than sit in a railroad car for three hours and shiver— For I live on the Erie. See? Operatic HE inimitable Mr. Hammerstein, having hypnotized the critical faculties of most of the gentlemen who enjoy the privilege of passing judgment publicly upon musical events, can now smile contentedly up his ample sleeve, while he reads some of the accounts of the production at the Metro- politan. The crowning sensation of Mr. Ham- merstein’s season thus far has been the début of Mary Garden in an absolute novelty, Massenet’s “Thais.” Gigantic billboards and newspaper advertisements announced to an eager public that the sa- pient impresario had benevolently decided not to increase the prices of admission, in spite of the importance of the occasion. All our scintillating essayists in little were present, columns were devoted to the new star’s deliciously transparent, clinging cos- tumes, her feline strides, her abounding vitality, her intense fervor and the magnif- icent floral tributes to her genius. The inef- fectual, insipid music, which even Renaud’s great art failed to glorify, together with Miss Garden's painful efforts in the soprano register, were indulgently passed over, with the result that the human kaleidoscope, anxious not to miss Oscar’s bargain prices, is now crowding the Manhattan. Mr. Hammerstein deserves our unlimited gratitude for having dared single-handed to start a rivalry, the results of which are eminently wholesome. M. B. “T HEAR Perkins married a fresh-air fiend.” “T should say so. He told me he didn’t take off his fur coat once on his entire honeymoon.” Permanent RIDE OF SOME MONTHS: My - tempers, you say, are trying? He: At times. “T would not have you worn out with them. If you cared to be released from”—— “Oh, no; not at all; not a minute. I don’t feel so even when I’m cross. I’m no ninety-day volunteer. I enlisted for the wav. “GODLY PEOPLE FIND IT VERY HARD, MR. HIGGINS, TO BECOME ACCUSTOMED TO THE COIN WITHOUT THE MOTTO.” THET’S SO, PARSON; RECKON THAR AIN'T BUT ONE THING THEY'LL FIND HARDER.” “AND WHAT IS THAT?” “TRYIN’ T’ SCRAPE ALONG ON THE MOTTER 'THOUT THE COIN.” comicbooks.com