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Life, 1910-02-03 · page 30 of 44

Life — February 3, 1910 — page 30: what you’re looking at

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Life — February 3, 1910 — page 30: Life, 1910-02-03

What you’re looking at

This page contains two distinct elements: a **Mercer automobile advertisement** (left) and a **satirical sermon parody** titled "Sparks from Old Anvils" (right). The advertisement promotes the Mercer car as superior value, priced at $1,950—a competitive price point for the early automobile era. The satire mocks **overwrought Victorian-era sermons** that extract grandiose moral lessons from trivial nursery rhyme subjects. The preacher treats Mother Hubbard's simple trip to an empty cupboard as profound spiritual instruction, obsessively analyzing each word ("the cupboard"—not "a cupboard") and reading deep significance into mundane details. The joke targets clergy who deliver tediously pedantic, inflated sermons mining profundity from humble sources. It's a commentary on pompous religious rhetoric of the era—ministers treating children's verses with unwarranted gravity. The satire continues beyond this page, suggesting this was a recognizable, tiresome sermon style readers would appreciate mocking.

📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)

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

= Licensed Under Selden Patent The Maximum Car at $ 1 9 5 0 a Minimum Price - The Mercer is larger than most cars at anywhere near the price. A comparison of its specifications with those of other cars, proves its all- round supremacy. In fact its speci- fications are equal to any $2,500 car and are even superior to some cars selling ata still higher price. Power, speed, quietness, economy and a motor that will run “as fast as the fastest or slow as a walk on high gear,” combine to make the Mercer a car of exceptional merit. MODELS: Touring Car, Toy Tonneau, Speedster Write for Catalogue Mercer Automobile Co. Meaters Amoxlatlon Licensed Automotile Maoufactarers, TRENTON, N. J. New Yerk—Mercer Automobile Sales Company, 1840 Broad Brocklyo—Peerleas Garage & Sales Ca., 940 Bedford Ave, st Pailin Fenae Tesioot re, 8. Sat £8 Celaatven Aves astern Neoraaks Aste Co, Lin Angeles, Cal. —Mercee Auto Co., 218 West 10uh St A Model Discourse The following is a satire on a class of sermons now less frequently heard than formerly : (Best Things from Best Authors) “Brethren, the words of my text are: “*Old Mother Hubbard, she went tS the cupboard, To get her poor dog a bone; But when she got there, the cupboard was bare, And so the poor dog had none.’ “These beautiful words, dear friends, carry with them a solemn lesson. I propose this evening to analyze their meaning, and to attempt to apply it, lofty as it may be, to our every-day life. “Mother Hubbard, you sec,.was old; there being no mention of others, we may presume that she was alone— a widow, a friendless, solitary old widow. Yet, did she despair? Did she sit down and weep, or read a novel, or wring her hands? No! She went to the cupboard. And here observe that she went to the cupboard. She went to the cupboard. She did not hop, or skip, or run, or jump, or use any other peripatetic artifice; she solely and merely went to the cupboard. We have seen that she was old and lonely, and we now further sce she was poor. For, mark the words are, ‘the cupboard,’ not ‘one of the cupboards,’ or ‘the right-hand cupboard,’ or ‘the left-hand cupboard,’ or ‘the one above,’ or ‘the one below,’ or ‘the one under the floor,’ but just ‘the cupboard,’—the one humble little cupboard the widow possessed. And why did she go to the cupboard? Was it to bring forth golden goblets, or glittering precious stones, or costly apparel, or feasts, or any other attributes to wealth? It was ‘to get her poor dog a bone.’ Not only was the widow poor, but her dog, the sole prop of her age, was poor also. We can imagine the scene. The poor dog crouching in the corner, looking wistfully at the solitary cupboard, and the widow going to that cupboard in hope, in expectation, may be, to open it, although we are not distinctly told that it was not half-open or ajar—to open it for that poor dog. “*But when she got there, the cupboard was bare, And so the poor dog had none.’ “When she got there! You see, dear brethren, what Perseverance You see the beauty of persistence in doing right. She got there. There were no turnings and twistings, no slippings and slidings, no leaning to the right or faltering to the left. With glorious simplicity we are told ‘she got there.’ And how was her noble ef- fort rewarded? ‘The cupboard was bare.’ It was bare. There were to be found neither apples nor oranges, nor cheese-cakes, nor penny buns, nor ginger bread, sor crackers, nor nuts, nor lucifer matches. The cupboard was bare! Had there been a leg of mutton, a loin of lamb, a fillet of veal, even an ice from Gunter's, the case would have been very different, the incident would have been otherwise. But it was bare, my brethren—bare as a bald head. Many of you will probably say, with all the pride of worldly sophistry, ‘The widow, no doubt, went out and bought a dog biscuit.” Ah, no! Far removed from these earthly ideas, these mundane desires, poor Mother Hub- bard, the widow, whom many thoughtless worldlings would despise, in that she only owned one cupboard, perceived— or I might even say saw—at once the relentless logic of (Continued on page 215) Spar (Cor the situa ail the h tad enal pot atte fers of the inevit socalled hat sh did notl none!’ a formatio know suf of enoug the veil of Old N the cupt not there sanding depict to ing his « the soug where el are not | future. glean fr many les em, to lies, and frailty 0 widows, Hubbard recollecti day, let are fond we do; i comicbooks.com