Life, 1909-05-06 · page 20 of 48
Life — May 6, 1909 — page 20: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page reviews three books but features three humorous illustrations labeled "Observation," "Interrogation," and "Investigation." The cartoons depict a child in bear-skin boots encountering a bear in progressively comedic scenarios—first spotting it, then questioning/confronting it, finally investigating its den. The satire likely plays on the book's title itself: a child's foolish adventures in impractical footwear. The three-panel progression humorously illustrates the escalating consequences of poor judgment, paralleling how the reviewed books (particularly the children's Civil War history) treat their subjects with varying degrees of sophistication. The "Copperheads" reference in the text notes the children's book oversimplifies Civil War politics with crude definitions. The cartoons similarly mock simplistic approaches to complex situations—a child in bear boots encountering actual bears.
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Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
620 ae 8BOOKS& “THE Story of My Life," by Ellen Terry (The McClure Company, New York), is a stout volume of engaging ndor and vivacity. Never was there a more straightforward piece of narrative. Never was less artifice employed in an auto- The simple expedient of ringing the curtain up and down at discretion is hardly Machiavelian ; but it appeals to the good sense of the reader, just as Miss Terry's kindness and gayety appeal to his good humor. Even the foolish old stage The Queer Trail of the Bear-Skin Boots OBSERVATION INTERKOGATION jokes sparkle afresh on these delightful pages, and we realize— not for the first time—what a bond of friendship may be woven out of little hoarded jests, and stories, and sweet ab surdities shared in common. Given a love of companionshi and a love of fun (Miss Terry confesses to both), and stage life is full to the brim of those blessed incongruities which drown discouragement in laughter. The most serious part of the volume is the history of Sir Henry Irving's triumphs and failures, the tribute of dis- criminating praise laid like a garland on his tomb. There is a characteristic account of Irving's inviting Edwin Booth to play Othello and Iago at the Lyceum Theatre, and asking him for suggestions concerning the stage management. Booth had none to give. To him a play meant simply his own conception of his own part. The casting of the other characters was a matter of indifference. The setting failed to interest him at all. Irving's passionate concern for the play as a whole, for the beauty of the spectacle, the perfection of every detail, the harmony of every scene, found no reflection in Booth’s de- tached soul. The great actor failed to understand what the reat artist craved HERE is much improper behavior in Mr. E. Phillips Op penheim’s last novel, “The Missioner”” (Little, Brown & Co., Boston), and many lurid glimpses into the “haute demi- monde” of the “City of Pleasure,”’ Paris. It is rather a boresome monde, on the whole; and, what with defending female virtue on the one hand, and male virtue on the other, Mr. Oppenheim has a busier time than falls to the lot of most novelists. To his credit be it said he pulls the thing through, floats his three couples into the safe harbor of matrimony and starts hero and heroine to work on a Convalescents’ Home before he blesses them and says a last good-by ” AR CHILDREN,” by Mr. John T. Wheelwright (Dodd, Mead & Co., New York), is a brief history of the Civil War, written for youthful readers, and given a vague resemblance to fiction by the introduction of some little boys and girls, whose exuberant patriotism leaves nothing to be de- sired. It is a manly book, animated by a martial spirit, and taking the simplest possible view of all political complications Perhaps its definition of “ Copperheads ""—" Northern men who sympathized with the ‘Seceshes’''—is a trifle crude. INVESTIGATION comicbooks.com