Life, 1913-06-19 · page 19 of 52
Life — June 19, 1913 — page 19: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains two distinct pieces of humor: **"Music Hath Charms"** satirizes pseudoscientific health fads of the era. It mocks the claim that the opera singer Caruso's bones possess musical properties, then absurdly extrapolates: imagine "musical babies" that never cry, or vibrating people's "funny bones" to cure humorlessness in "Presbyterian and Methodist conferences." The satire targets both credulous belief in music's curative powers and the era's tendency toward overconfident scientific theorizing about human improvement. **"The Church Fair"** appears to be a visual cartoon (top illustration) depicting a fair with the caption asking readers to identify the refreshment booth—likely a gentle joke about church social conventions. **"Favorite Interjections"** is a brief comedic list pairing social types (Debtor, Farmer, Auctioneer, Optimist) with their characteristic exclamations, poking gentle fun at class and professional stereotypes. The overall tone is light, satirizing both scientific pretension and social conventions of the early 20th century.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Music Hath Charms ish Doctor AME declares that Caruso’s bones are musical and that if you touch one of his knuckles it gives a resonant tone. We have long sus- pected that there were g reat possibilities along the lines sug- gested by this physi- cian, Jt is a well- known fact that a very slight variation in vibrations may be the difference between a dis- cord and a harmony. It now only remains for some scien- tist to invent a system whereby the proper musical tones can be brought out. Let us have a musical baby who, instead of keeping its parents awake at all hours of the night by discordant THE CHURCH FAIR GUESS WHICH IS THE REFRESHMENT BOOTH sounds, will enable them to get the same sensations that they would from listening to the opera. Some time ago an ambitious expert developed the theory that music, if properly applied, could cure almost any disease. There lies, therefore, in this combination a possible panacea for the human race. All you need to do is to tune your baby up to the proper vibration and sleep can be eliminated. A man who comes home at night tired from the day's work, can sit and listen to his musical infant for a couple of hours until his system has beca rejuvenated and all fatigue has disappeared. There are great possibilities in the funny bone. By producing from that hitherto osseous mystery a certain set of musical vibrations one might even- tually be able to create a sense of humor. In this way whole philosoph- ical societies, not to speak of psy- chologists and political economists, paleontologists, Presbyterian and Methodist conferences, could be re- juvenated. Suppose, for instance, you could go into a synod and by vibrat- ing the funny bones of the delegates could adumbrate a combined sense of humor! In the course of time each one of us might be regenerated into a walk- ing music-box. Even the office boy's whistle under these advanced condi- tions might become harmonions and edifying to the ear. Favorite Interjections RUMME Debtor's Traveler’s—We Masher’s—Alas! onomist’s—Oh, dear! Old maid’s—He! He! Farmer’s—Ho! Ho! Barrister's—Law! Auction bridge Player’s—Whist! Epicure’s—Farewell! Optimist’s—Good-day ! comicbooks.com