Life, 1909-11-11 · page 13 of 36
Life — November 11, 1909 — page 13: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains two distinct pieces: **Left Section**: A two-panel cartoon titled "Our 'Lady of the Snows'" shows a woman figure speaking poetically about her domain ("the gates are mine to open, to close"). This appears to be a personification of winter or snow, rendered in whimsical rather than political terms. **Right Section**: An article titled "Please Invent an Artificial Tree" critiques New York City's inability to maintain shade trees due to urban infrastructure (gas pipes, sewers, asphalt). The author (signed E.S.M.) argues that Manhattan needs artificial shade trees in streets since natural ones cannot survive the conditions. **Bottom Right**: An unrelated cartoon shows a child with animals, captioned "What's that about the cat family?" The satire targets urban planning failures rather than political figures.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Lady of the Snows” SOLITUDE speaks to a Nation, A Queen sends word from her throne: “Daughter am I in my father’s house, Put mistress in my own. The gates are mine to open, As the gates are mine to close; And I set my house in order,”” Says our Lady of the Snows. Please Invent an Artificial Tree HE recent efforts of New York to make known to all the wor'd that it has been discovered and is situated on a river navigable by steamboats has stirred the cautious Emperor of japan to send the city a lot of ornamental Japanese cherry trees They will be very welcome derstand that they are to be We un- set out in Riverside Park, and we hope they will do well there, for the island of Manhattan is not at all strong in its exhibitions of erboriculture, nor of floriculture cither. There are ny flower shows on the island that hold a candle to the displays in the Boston Public Gardens. We have some tulip beds in the spring, but none to compare in beauty or variety with the Boston tulips. As to trees, our case is equally bad Those in the parks are beautiful, to be sure, but we hear from time to time that most of them are in bad health because the soil they stand in is exhausted There will continue, though, to be trees in the parks, even if the city has to buy some new dirt. Our greatest need is of shade trees in the streets. There were some in upper Broadway, but the sub- way builders extirpated them and they have never been successfully replanted. 669 The Tree Planting Association got a good many trees set out in residence streets here, but very few of them have come to anything. How can a tre prosper that is planted in asphalt and rooted in gas pipes, wire ducts sewers, which are torn up every year or two and the trees with them? The thing cannot be done. Shade trees here, ex cept in the parks, are a dismal failure. Can't invent an artificial shade tree, without roots, suited to and somebody Bur- bank wizard enough to make a three: inch gas pipe throw out branches? Aaron could have done it, and so could the magicians of Pharaoh. Perhaps ef- fort of precisely that sort is out of date, but the manufacture of some kind of an artificial shade tree, hing take the place of shade trees in cities like New York, is worth the attention of practical minds. Of course the natural remedy for our predicament is to lay the city out new and make provision for natural trees; but that’s impossible and inexpedient anyhow, because there isn’t really room to grow more natural trees on Manhattan Island so long as so many people insist upon living on it. Neither is there room for natural trees in the business streets of any city. Anybody who can put on the market a serviceable, artificial shade tsce tLat will shut up in winter ought to make a fortune. E.S.M. streets of such cities as ours? Is or som TUDIOUS YOUTH: Say, pa, who was the last to discover the pole first? man “WHAT'S THAT ABOUT THE CAT FAMILY? comicbooks.com