Life, 1911-08-17 · page 18 of 40
Life — August 17, 1911 — page 18: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains three distinct satirical pieces: **"Civil Service Examination for a Poet Laureate"** mocks romantic poetry conventions by listing absurd exam questions about archaic poetic terms ("bosky dell," "beetling crag," "flowered mead"). The satire ridicules flowery Victorian poetry language as pretentious and nonsensical. **"The Aeroplane Story"** critiques the then-popular aviation adventure narratives flooding popular culture. It satirizes how these stories—despite featuring cutting-edge technology—recycle tired romantic tropes: the same square-jawed hero, beautiful heroine, and predictable "saves the world" plot unchanged for fifty years. The point: new technology, old storytelling. **"One Explanation"** uses a father-son dialogue to mock legal/political obfuscation. When asked about the Supreme Court "dissolving" a trust, the father explains it like dissolving sugar in water—the sugar remains, just invisible. The satire targets how authorities use technical language to obscure that nothing substantive changes.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Civil Service Examination for a Poet Laureate HAT is a bosky dell? What makes it bosky? What is a dingle? How do the cows come down the din- gle? Write a sonnet to “ My Lady's Eyes” without using the rhyme “skies.” Why does the sea moan? What is a beetling crag? What has the beetle got to do with it? Describe a flowered mead. What is a mead? If so, why? How do you pronounce w-i-n-d? Is it any different from ordinary wind? How do you put in the blanks in blank verse? Do you consider the blank verse any noisier than the loaded kind? Write a popular song from any forty Voice from Shore: uas your cHavr NE FOR HELP? Ties (ok, BeHea'g'” Faradioe Lost” “Nope, He's UNDER THE CAR.” Next to’ yourself, who is the greatest poct in the world? The Aeroplane Story E acroplane story is now upon us. It is filled with propellers, cams, engines, gaskets, tridirons, stays and all other articles usually found in a first- class junk shop. The hero swoops madly from zone to zone, destroying forts and warships and things. At last he speeds wildly half around the world and rescues the heroine, after scaring the rulers of all the nations into signing an agreement for universal peace. However, brethren and sisters, we note that the hero is the same athletic, square shouldered chap, and the heroine the same beauteous damsel the illustrators have been turning out for the past fifty years. SUZANNA AND THE ELDERS One Explanation “QAY, Pa, what docs it mean when it s: preme coun i oS Ay, Court dissolved a trust?” ee is ; Well, my son, you see, hum—ha—that’s a sort of solu- ah tion of the trust question “ Does it fix it so there isn't any trust any more, Pa?” “Well, my son, when you dissolve a lump of sugar in , the trust is still there, but you can’t sce it.” a thing done ri , do it yourself. If you wish ney on it, hire some one, If you wish to make a lot of money, hire a lot of people. P) RROSSON CRUSOE got along better than Adam. A CONVERT To New THOUGHT comicbooks.com