Life, 1912-11-28 · page 26 of 44
Life — November 28, 1912 — page 26: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
**Main Content: Bayard Jones Profile** This is a biographical feature on cartoonist/illustrator Bayard Jones, a regular contributor to *Life* magazine. The interview covers his background (trained in Paris and New York), sense of humor (inherited from Uncle Bill Arp), and current work on a wedding-scene cartoon contest for the Christmas issue. **Bottom Cartoon: "Who's Who"** The satirical cartoon depicts various male "types" available as potential husbands, each labeled with stereotypical characteristics: "Heir with Brain," "Divorced with Morals," "College Athlete," "Very Hard Drinker," "Rich Widower," and "Very Poor Baron." The caption reads "FOR THE PROTECTION OF INEXPERIENCED DEBUTANTES," sarcastically suggesting this is a guide to help young wealthy women choose suitable (or unsuitable) matches. The humor lies in exposing how debutantes actually evaluated marriage prospects—wealth, social status, and moral compromises often outweighed character. **Parsifal Section** Brief commentary on the upcoming Metropolitan Opera production of Wagner's opera, dismissing hand-wringing about American productions violating the composer's intentions.
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2294 Life’s Family Album Bayard Jones NE of the most valued contribu- tors to the pictorial side of Lire is Mr. Bayard Jones. His half-tones have a quality and a humor of ther own—a kind of mingling of senti- ment and satire. “You are about to be interviewed,” we said one day, dropping in on him through the skylight of his Twenty- FOR THE “TEE « eighth Street studio, “You must tell us everything—where you got your sense of humor, whether you are in love with your art and how much you have suffered.” “I got my sense of humor from Bill Arp, who was my uncle, but I have been too busy to fall too deeply in love with my as for suffering, I have been a regular commuter now for several years, having been on in- timate terms with most of our rail- road systems.” “What is your favorite occupa- tion?” “ Thinking.” “How old are you?” “T absolutely refuse to tell.” “Where were you born?” “In the flatwoods of Georgi: “Where did you stud the Massachusetts Institute of hnology and later on in Paris, at Julian’s; then I came to New York and took it up at a finishing school.” Tt is rather remarkable, considering that Mr. Jones is so strong in his purely American types, to know that he went to school in New York. We suspect that he must have found his Americans elsewhere. Mr. Jones’s clever pencil is respon- sible for our latest contest picture— the amusing wedding scene—the win- ning answer to which will be pub- lished next week—in the Christmas Number. WHO'S WHO Parsifal P RSIFAL, the mystical Wagnerian Arthurian Christian music-drama, is to be produced again in New York this season. The announcement is ac- companied by the usual wail of the W e as to the sacrilege and the immorality and the dishonesty of such a production. Presumably the Lones of the great German musician- dramatist. will turn again in their grave, as they have turned so many times before when sacred traditions were being violated, sacred ties broken, and sacred illusions destroyed. Those who have seen Parsifal both in Bay- reuth and in New York agree that the Metropolitan presentation is by far the superior of the two. The one thing lacking is the actual spirit of the com- poser, which, according to the best authorities, still hovers over the con- ductor’s desk at Bayreuth, and, by hypnotic influence as it were, translates a very commonplace performance into an impressive ritual. Wagner must certainly have appre- ciated the difference between good and bad operatic productions. Does it really seem likely that he would ob- ject seriously to having his masterpiece presented in the most perfect artistic form imaginable, even though it be for the edification of American mil- lionaires instead of the reverential Bayreuthers ? PROTECTION OF INEXPERIENCED DERUTANTES. For odome We machit that 5 being condit df And 1 with ¢ Thi were | outlas same on the comicbooks.com