Life, 1913-04-10 · page 12 of 48
Life — April 10, 1913 — page 12: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page presents a satirical essay titled "Illusions" accompanied by three illustrations. The narrative mocks romantic idealization and social pretense through several vignettes: 1. **The storm shelter scene**: A farmer's wife refuses a soaked traveler shelter, claiming poverty while the sun shines—exposing hypocrisy. 2. **The lovers in the park**: The narrator ridicules a couple kissing publicly as "absurd" and "crazy," suggesting Edwardian-era social disapproval of overt public affection. 3. **The robbery scene** (captioned "Hand Finished"): Robbers attack a defenseless citizen, but when the victim claims poverty, the robbers react indignantly—the joke being that even thieves maintain pretenses of dignity and "manhood," revealing how deeply social illusions penetrate all levels of society. The satire targets hypocrisy across classes.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Illusions AKING a walk one bright afternoon along a country road, the clouds swiftly gathered in the west, and before I could reach the friendly shelter of a neighboring farmhouse the storm burst upon me with great fury; the rain fell in tor- rents and I was soon drenched to the skin. Finally I saw a house and, run- ning up to it, knocked upon the door. “Will you give me shelter?” I cried “From said the farmer's wife. “Tam wet and the storm is oppress- ing me.” “Storm? What storm? The sun is shining, the birds are singing and everything is as it should be. You must be demented.” I walked on. After a while I came across two lovers, sitting upon a bench in the park. They had their arms entwined and were kissing each other violently. At my approach they did not stop. At first I hesitated, fearing to embarrass them, but seeing that they did not mind I drew nearer. “Tt is a great thing to be in love,” I said. “Love!” they exclaimed. do you mean?” “Are you not loving each other?” They both sprang up indignantly, with their arms still about cach other “How ridiculous! Certainly not! The idea is absurd! You must crazy!” they said pityingly. I passed on until I came to a shady glen. Hearing shouts, 1 what?” “What be HAND FINISHED looked up and saw a band of seven bandits, who were engaged in robbing a defenseless pedestrian. I hastened to the scene, preparing to rescue him. “Stop!” 1 exclaimed. top what? id the robbers. “Are you not robbing that poor de- fenscless citizen “Certainly not,” said the head rob- ber, glaring at me. “ The idea is per- fectly preposterous, You are insulting the dignity of our manhood,” and he drew himself up proudly. Then I turned to the poor defense- less citizen. ATE DIDN'T MEAN TO WRECK “Were you not being robbed by these bandits?” I exclaimed, as I smoothed down his torn clothing He looked at me indignantly. “Certainly not!" he othing of the sort.” Then what is the matter with me? exclaimed. At this the poor defenseless citizen smiled blithely. “Poor fool,” he muttered see things, that is all.” “You “There is no money trust.” comicbooks.com