Life, 1909-08-05 · page 27 of 44
Life — August 5, 1909 — page 27: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
The top cartoon is a joke about German immigrant clients. An architect recommends leaving trees on the building site for screening, but the wealthy German client (indicated by "Mein Gott!" and German accent) protests spending $50,000 on a house only to cut down the trees—revealing misplaced priorities and immigrant "nouveau riche" stereotypes. The humor relies on ethnic caricature common to early 20th-century American satire. Below is the opening of "A Postponed Europe," a short story about a bridge card game. The narrator describes playing with three wealthy partners: a wealthy older woman covered in diamonds, a young divorced woman with alimony, and a military-bearing man (possibly a "Colonel"). The story satirizes high-society leisure activities and suggests romantic/financial entanglements among the wealthy. The title's meaning—why Europe is "postponed"—remains unclear from this excerpt alone.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
7 Pav bre | i Sligo 5 Architect (looking over site) Client rr WOULD ST LEAVING THE MEIN GOTT! VOT DO YOU SUBBOSE I’M SPENTING FIFTY TREES, THEY'LL Tow SCREEN You ND DOLLARS ON A HOUSE FROM THE GAZ# OF PASSERS-BY, FOR? GUT ’EM DOWN, A Postponed Europe DREW for my partner a woman of about forty or forty-two, with sharp features, a highly aristocratic nose, in a beautiful gown and with rather a hard, cold, metallic voice. 1 should say she had about a million dollars’ worth of diamonds scattered over her. It made her look like a map of the heavens such as you sce pictured in books‘on astronomy, cach dia- mond ornament being a star, or a constella- tion “What is your discard?" she asked pleas antly, as the cards were spread. rength. And yours?"* Yeakness in a declared trump."* ne, as you already know, was bridge. I tly good player. The cards were dealt by my right hand opponent, a man of fifty, with a slightly dissipated and military bearing. It is not uncommon, you know, to see this combination. My left hand opponent was a young woman of thirty. J heard afterwards that she had just g ony. But that has nothing to do with this her divorce, with fifty thou- The dealer mad three other heart To tell the truth, I had the ace, king and besides protection in all the other suits. I don’t remember distinctly now just what I did have, except that my hand impressed me as a fairly good gamble; so I doubled it. Double back," said the Colonel—or whoever he was. Satisfied,"" I murmured, that I was in for it However, I thought to myself, it really doesn’t matter much As for my partner, she was nice about it. Her face didn't show that she cared. We played on. They got two tricks over the six. Aces were easy. The Colonel, who was keeping the score, put down 06 for them. it no trumps. comicbooks.com