Life, 1908-02-06 · page 24 of 36
Life — February 6, 1908 — page 24: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page presents a story rather than a political cartoon. The small illustration at bottom—labeled "The Pressure of Poverty"—depicts a person in formal dress surrounded by small dogs or animals with signs, likely satirizing how the poor are forced into undignified situations for survival. The main narrative concerns theatrical producer Benjamin Marcus and actress Constance Chester negotiating over plays. Marcus offers her two scripts: "The Strife of the Strong" and "The Atonement" by a Southern playwright named Beverly Vaine. Chester chooses the combination and notes that Vaine's name "sounds like a Rockaway excursion boat"—a dismissive jab suggesting it sounds cheap or common. The satire targets theatrical pretension: Chester worries whether the play is "spicy" enough to shock audiences, while Marcus admits readers prefer mediocre work. When Chester recalls meeting Vaine at "The Players or The Arts" (prestigious New York clubs), she jokes that he was shocked she didn't know where Shakespeare was born—mocking both his snobbery and her own indifference to literary culture.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
LiFe Which Did He Say? A Story with an Unsolved Problem By Theodore J. Grayson =. the Balitor of Lars is foctive bit of teGon, Rut © just now, amd Live feels Which did he say? ay ask themsel R ponted her ultra-carmine lips 1 poked viciously with « blue parasol at the tip of her pump. “TL want a humme a make New York sit up and take nourishment.” Mr, Benjamin Marcus leaned back in his swivel chair and contemplated her through the half-closed lids of his small eye: nounced. “Something that will He was a neat, dapper little man, with a dome-shaped head, almost bald, and there was a rare white orehid in his button- hole. A big flat-topped desk separated the parties to this conver: sation, and it was covered with a litter of correspondence and dd there a silver photograph frame rising monumentally and ptivating features of some young woman whos tions with Mr. Marcus had been slightly tinetured by friendship. manuscripts, with here For a moment or so Marcus considered Miss Chester's de- mand, making his chair creak abominably as he did so; then he came down with a bang and reached half w desk with a white, nervous hand. “Tere you are,” he said, “two plays, cither one of which will do with some alteration—'The Strife of the Strong,’ by toss his Atonement,’ by that young Southerner, It didn’t take Miss Chester long to decide between the two. “That's an allright: combination,” she exclaimed, writing it out as she spoke, with the tip of her parasol. Mr. Benjamin Marcus presents Constance Chester in ‘The Atonement hy Beverly Viv “That's. a perfectly good poste: tand the author's name is peachy; sounds like a Rockaway excursion boat. Is the picce spicy, with plenty of go in it; will it shock ‘em some?” Mr, Marcus yawned delicately; he had been over this y many times, “My readers sey it’s better than the “he remarke “hut the man has no reputa- people last year, and he has sold several ewenty-minute skits to the Keith Circuit.” Miss Chester knitted her penciled brows as if trying te recollect something.“ Beverly Vaine,” she muttered. “WwW yes, Tdid meet him. It was at a tea at ‘The Players or The Arts, T never can remember which is which, He's tall, sallow, dark haired, and good looking. He" —with a. giggle—"he scemed shocked beeause T couldn't remember where Shakes- peare was born.” THE PRESSURE OF POVERTY comicbooks.com