Life — May 21, 1908 — page 12: what you’re looking at

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

“RE The Simple Jography Chapter XIV MODERN GEOGRAPHICAL DISCOVERERS Far be it from us to speak lightly of the work of Christopher Columbus—and yet when we consider the size of America and the consequent impossibility of his sailing in any direction except home without discover- ing it, we can only compare the achievement to the finding of a Haystack in a Package of Needles. GIBRALTAR ! t val SS S$ ROCK OF GIBRALTAR, IT BELONGS TO GREAT BRITAIN, AND ON ITS FACE 1S WRITTEN THE WATCHWORD OF BRITISH RESPECT: amtuty—Honi soit qui mal y pense—DoNr 1NTO ENGLISH It is refreshing to turn from Columbus's Discovery, the wisdom of which is to-day a matter of question, to the much more amu- sing Geographical Discoveries of our own time. Among the most important are the fol- lowing: The Land of the Jum Discovered in 18-hundred and something by Edwin Lear, who described the country the never-to-be-forgotten lines: “Far and Few, Far and Few, are the lands where the Jumblies live.” Edwin Lear also discovered the land where the Bong Tree grows: “They sailed away for a year and a day To the land where the Bong Tree grows.” Wonderland Discovered by Lewis Carroll in 187— In the year following Mr, Carroll made his famous trip Through the Looking Glass and discovered that most important addition to our modern Fauna, the Jab- berwock, who “with eyes of flame Came whifing through the Tulgywood And burbbled as he came.” By Oliver Herford Topsyturvydom ‘This Wonderful Country “Where vice is virtue, virtue vice, Where nice is nasty, nasty nice, Where right is wrong and wrong is right, Where white is black and black is white, was discovered by W. S. Gilbert in the year 1867. ‘The discovery of Topsyturvydom marks an Era in modern Geographical Science —as there was only one Moses, so there is only one Gilbert, and never since the Exodus of the Israelites has there been anything to compare with the rush of literary emigrants to stake claims upon the land of Topsy- turvydom. Robert Louis Stevenson One of the very greatest of modern dis- coverers, struck out (1880) into an entirely new country, and in Prince Otto opened up a mine rich in high-grade Romantic Ore. The success of the Prince Otto mine resulted in the devastation of the new terri- tory by a horde of Romantic Prospectors and Literary Land Grabbers, who opened new mines on all sides. Among the best paying of these were the Zenda and the Ruritania Mines. ‘The vein is now quite exhausted and the country so played out as to be avoided even by Cook's tourists. Among other modern geographical dis- coveries may be mentioned Never Never- land, discovered by J. M. Barrie,and Toy- land, by Harry Meyer. These two countries are inhabited chiefly by little people. Note.—The Terrestrial Globe is bounded by imagi- mary lines, but the globe of imagination has no bownd- aries and the records of discovery in Imaginary Geog- raphy fll many volumes. For a complete set see ‘Andrea Carnegie Chapter XV THE RULERS OF THE EARTH No one has so lightly touched upon and gracefully rebounded from this Dangerous Ground as Lewis Carroll in “The Walrus and the Carpenter”: “The time has come,” the walrus said, ro talk of many things, Of ships and shoes and sealing-wax And Cabbages and Kings.” This would be a most interesting chapter in an otherwise instructive work if we had the space and the simplicity to do the sub- ject strict justice. Our publisher, however, does not wish this little book suppressed any more than is necessary for advertising purposes. We, therefore, reluctantly change the subject. Chapter XVI GOVERNMENT OF THE EARTH The best definition of Government may be found in Wordsworth’s lines: “The simple Plan That they should take who have the power And they should keep who can.” In every community on Earth the strongest, the craftiest or the wealthiest of the male inhabitants combine to compel their weaker, stupider or poorer brothers and sisters to pay them for the privilege of remaini-ig on carth. ¢ A Government by the Strongest is called an Absolute Monarchy; ‘| A Government by the Craftiest, a Lim- ited Monarchy, { And a Government by the Wealthiest, a Republic. { In an Absolute Monarchy, the People are Controlled. {In a Limited Monarchy, they are Cajoled. { In a Republic, they are Sold. For the successful operation of Limited Monarchies and Republics it is necessary to delude the Common People into the be- lief that they are managing their own affairs. This is accomplished by means of: a House of Commons, Chamber of Deputies, Senate, Reichstag, Douma, etc. A REPRESENTATIVE OF THE PROPLE These merry contrivances are designed on the principle of the revolving squirrel- cage, furnishing harmless exercise without progression. comicbooks.com