Life — July 8, 1909 — page 21: what you’re looking at

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

The Passing of Satire said the Melancholy Au- “YOUNG Y' thor, “Isdo not commonly permit myself to be ‘interviewed '; what paper do you repre- The Timorous Reporter spoke the name of the great journal that was connected with him: Sir. I never have heard of it,"" said the Mel- oly Author. “I trust that it is devoted to ¢ interests of Literature.”’ Assurance was given that it had a Poets’ Cor- nd that among its regular contributors it ered both Aurora Angelina Aylmer and a pet Binks, the satirist. Indeed,’’ said the great man, “ you surprise I had supposed that satire, once so large and wholesome an element in English letters. n of was long dead and d— pardon me—buried . You must bear with me if I do not concede the hing xistence of Mr. Binks. Satire cannot co-exist h such mollycoddle sentiments as ‘ the brother-. { of man,’ ‘the trusteeship of wealth,’ moral rresponsibility, tolerance, socialism and the rest ci it. Who ean ‘lash the rascals naked through he world’ in an age that holds crime to be a sease and converts the prison into a sanita- rhe Timorous Reporter ventured to ask if he red crime a symptom of mental health. The Best of Everything at the Best Time — Yellowstone Park, A Colorado. bY through sland and an RAYMOND & WHITCOMB CO. 225 Fifth Avenue, New York PHILADELPHIA PITTSBURGH Send for Booklet | BOSTON erciless quantity of something imperfectly sown to his visitor from the arid South. Crime, sir," said he, partly recovering, “is merely a high degrce of selfishness directed by a low degree of intelligence. If selfishness is a disease none of us is altogether well. We are all selfish, or we should not be living, but most of us have the discernment to sce that our per manent advantage does not lie in gratification of nur malevolence by murder, nor in auginenting our possessions by theft. Those of us who think otherwise should be assisted to a saner view by anishment. It is sad, so sad, to reflect that ony of them escape it.”” But it is agreed,’ said the journalist, “ by all our illustrious sociologists—Brand Whitlock, Clarence Darrow, Eugene Debs and Emma Gold- man—that punishment is useless, that it does not deter; and they prove it by the number of con- victions recorded against individual criminals Will you kindly say if they are right?" “If punishment did not deter, the house- breaker discharged from prison would enter and rob the nearest dwelling to the prison gate; whereas, we know that the most incorrigible of the tribe will behave himself until pressed by want, or until in his brute stupidity he thinks, as he thought before, that he can escape de- tection. Punishment deters—not perfectly, for nothing is perfect, but it deters. If every hu- man institution that lamentably fails to accom- plish its full purpose is to be abolished none will remain. The Timorous Reporter begged to be consid- ered worthy to know what, apart from its great wisdom and interest, all this had to do with satire. Self-Loading Rifle, .351 Caliber, High Power This six-shot repeater utilizes the recoil to reload itself, which places loading, as well as shooting, under the control of the trigger finger. The ease, rapidity and accuracy with which it can be shot make it a particularly effective rifle for big game hunting, where the quarry often has to be shot ontherun, The.351 Caliber, High-Powercartridge has great killing power, making it heavy enough for the largest game. Circular fally describing this rifle,“The Gan That Shoots Through Steel,” sent upon request, WINCHESTER REPEATING ARMS CO,, “Satire,” said the Melancholy Author, “is punishment. As such it has fallen into public isfavor through disbelief in its justice and ef- So the rascals go unlashed. Instead of 3 for wit we have ‘humor ’—with a slang word in the fitst line, two in the second and three in the third Why, sir, the American reading public hardly know that there ever was a distinctive kind of writing known, technically, as satire—that it was once not only a glory to literature but, inciden- tally, a terror to all manner of civic and personal unworth. If we had to-day an Aristophanes, Jonathan Swift or an Alexander Pope, he would indubitably be put into a comfortable prison with all sanitary advantages, fed upon yellow-legged pullets and ensainted by the Little Brothers of the Pad. For they would think him a thief. In NEW HAVEN, CONN. the same error the churches would pray for him and the women compete for bis hand in mar riage.”" The thought of so great a pe! overcame the creator of the v to the ground, tried to cover coat-skirts and groaned aloud. Ambrose Bierce. A Pen Gone Wrong Colonel Henry Hall, president of the Gridiron Jan attack of appendicitis in Pitts- by which is his home city, and was taken to a hospital On the first day he was allowed to sit up he wrote to a friend in Washington about an im- portant matter, and closed: “ Please excuse haste and a bad appendix.’’—Satu Evening Post ersion of justice n and he sank face with his VIRGIL (-'Vergil) sang “Arma Virumque” which has been translated “Arms and the Man” Perhaps he didn't mean exactly what is shown in this miniature reproduction of the cover of this number of LIFE, but Mr. C. Coles Phillips's pictorial translation of the opening phrase of the AZneid is far more at- tractive than the same idea done into words. ‘The cover has been reproduced in color, carefully printed on good paper and mounted ready for framing. It measures 11 x 14 and will be sent, carriage prepaid, to any address on receipt of $1.00. LIFE PUBLISHING COMPANY, comicbooks.com