Life, 1910-03-03 · page 23 of 80
Life — March 3, 1910 — page 23: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains three satirical pieces typical of early 20th-century Life magazine humor: **"Mr. Charles Crane and His Run of Bad Luck"**: Mocks diplomat Charles T. Crane, recently appointed Minister to China but who mysteriously resigned after arriving in San Francisco. The piece expresses mock sympathy while implying his bad judgment, compounded by his father's published criticism of American college education as wasteful. **"Her Easter Bonnet"**: A poem lamenting the expense and time involved in purchasing and maintaining an Easter hat—satirizing women's fashion consumption and the hidden costs of maintaining social appearances. **"Conversation"**: A cynical essay arguing that people waste enormous resources learning to converse, yet most conversation is trivial gossip or weather talk. It satirizes the emptiness of polite society discourse and suggests genuine silence might be preferable. The bottom cartoon shows a rooster discovering eggs, quipping he'll divorce his wife—crude humor about infidelity and misattributed paternity.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
HER EASTER BONNET IN THE HOUSE OF SOLOMON Mr, Charles Crane and His Run of Bad Luck E,"ERvpopy who has feelings must feel for Mr. Charles T. Crane, who seems such an able and worthy man, and has such astonishing misfortunes. Being lately appointed Minister to China to the satisfaction of almost all observers, he was called back from San Francisco, admitted to the pre ence in the State Department, and straightway resigned, no- body knows why. And now his aged father, who builds ele- vators in Chicago, has published a book with intent to demon- strate that American college education is a failure, and that a hundred million dollars a year is “literally thrown away "” on it, “much to the injury of the country and its people.”” We do feel sorry for Mr. Charles Crane. G IMPKINS always was soft hearted, and when it devolved upon him to break gently the news of Jones’ drowning to the bereaved Mrs. Jones, it cost him much paper, ink and perspiration before he sent the following : “Dear Mrs. Jones: “Your husband cannot come home to-day, because his bathing suit was washed away in the surf. “P.S. Poor Jones was inside the suit.’” HEAVENS ! An Easter Idyl T’S just a simple bonnet, With a single rose upon it, And the little face beneath it is quite serene and still. But it took a week to buy it, And it takes an hour to tie it, And the good Lord only knows how long ‘twill take to pay the bill. Natalie Price. Conversation ONVERSATION is one of the blights of civilization. People spend thousands of dollars in education, in books, in travel, in theatre tickets, and all that in order to be able to carry on a conversa- tion. As a consequence the women talk about cooks and clothes and the men about weather and women. Conversation may be divided into chats, arguments, piffle and palaver, with gossip and quarrels as side issues. Conversations are fortunately forgot- ten as soon as they are over, otherwise people would be so mortified over their inane remarks that they would seck new friends every day. The idea that when people meet it is necessary for them to talk has grown out of helpless self-distrust. Not over five out of a mil- lion people say anything when they con- verse The art of conversation is a lost one and the art of keeping still demands cultivation. The trouble is that were we to try to develop the art of keeping still we should immediately begin to talk about it. IP MY WIFE LAID THOSE EGGS I'LL DIVORCE comicbooks.com