Life, 1908-11-19 · page 7 of 28
Life — November 19, 1908 — page 7: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This Life magazine page satirizes absurd partisan political claims. The illustration shows mythological and allegorical figures (including bears, cherubs, and classical figures) at a celestial ball. The accompanying text mocks Augustus Thomas, a playwright supporting Bryan's presidential campaign, for making ridiculous historical claims. Thomas allegedly asserted that biblical figures Moses and John the Baptist were Democrats, and that Republican figures like William Conners and Charles Murphy matched ancient patterns—comparisons the author finds laughably far-fetched. The satire targets both Thomas's over-imaginative campaign rhetoric and the broader tendency of both parties to retroactively claim famous historical figures for political credibility. The joke is that such partisan name-claiming is equally absurd regardless of which party does it.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
a= Se Cong, Little Bear: Cassiopeia: Absurd Claims of Partisans HERE was altogether too strong @ propensity in the late cam- paign to enroll persons who have passed out of active poli- tics as members of existing parties. Mr. Chafin, for exam- ple, the Prohibitionist candidate for President, insisted that Lin- coln was a Prohibitionist. He wasn't. He was a tectotaller, but in his day the Prohibitionist tenets had not been worked out, and he would not have approved them if they had been. Still more rash in assertion was Mr. WHO'S THAT TALL STAR DANCING WITH MY BROTHER? A DEBUTANTE—ONE OF THE PLEIADES GIRLS. THE ORION BALL Augustus Thomas, the playwright, who electioneered for Bryan. He declared that Moses and John the Baptist were Democrats; Moses, because he said “Thou shalt not steal,”’ the Baptist, be- cause he cried in the wilderness “ Repent ye!" This claim was absurdly far- fetched. Compare Moses and John with William J. Conners and Charles Murphy and see if you can find any identity of pattern. Yet William and Charles are standard Democrats in these parts. Mr. Thomas also asserted that Phar- aoh and Pontius Pilate were Republi- cans. Mr. Thomas has almost too much imagination to be a safe campaigner. It is much better to stick to living 11'S A NEW FACE To ME. SHE’S ONLY BEEN OUT TWO MILLION YEARS. voters in expounding party memberships. Lincoln, Jefferson, Washington, Moses, John the Baptist, Pharaoh and Pilate are all out of active political life, and should not be dragged into it. There are ques- tions about living men that are vastly more worthy of discussion, as whether Roosevelt is a Republican, whether Bryan is a Democrat, and if so what are La Follette, Foraker, Aldrich and Ryan. The old parties need to be re-sorted on new lines. “Republican? at this writing means nothing but the party in power; “ Democrat’? nothing but the party out of power. Those names must stand for something: for ideas percep- ibly different one from the other. comicbooks.com