Life, 1914-08-06 · page 17 of 40
Life — August 6, 1914 — page 17: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains three distinct pieces: **"I Heard a Baby Cry"** (poem by Charlotte Wilson): A sentimental reflection on parenthood. The speaker once found a crying baby on a train merely amusing, philosophizing about it abstractly. Now, with children of their own traveling by train and airplane, that same cry triggers genuine terror—fear for their safety. The satire is gentle: it mocks the speaker's former detachment while validating modern parental anxiety about transportation dangers. **"The Millennium"** (cartoon): A crowded, chaotic train car labeled "breakfast in the dining-car"—appears to satirize the absurdity or chaos of modern railway dining service. **"Accuracy"** (essay/satire): A tongue-in-cheek inversion arguing accuracy is boring, cowardly, and unpopular, while inaccuracy is courageous and delightful. This is philosophical satire—likely mocking people who prioritize expedience or dramatic narrative over truth-telling. **"Mrs. Bounderly"** (brief dialogue): A woman worried about steamship disasters asks about insurance—appears to satirize anxious travelers and the insurance industry's response to transportation safety concerns.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
I Heard a Baby Cry I HEARD a baby on the train Cry out. And from the magic pane, Which for my young, wayfaring soul Enchanted visions did unroll, I tolerantly turned, to see What such a mighty grief might be; And smiled, and thought, “ What cos- mic woe Sets that loud atom howling so?” I hear a baby cry. I hear And oh, some iron-handed fear Snatches my heart and grips it tight, Ere I can smile away my fright! My girls ride, vision-led, in trains; My boys are driving aeroplanes ;— Yet Fear shall get me till I die Each time I hear a baby cry! Charlotte Wilson. “ou! 1 WAS JUST WISHING SOMFRODY WOULD COME ALONG THAT COULD FIX MY ENGINE!” Accuracy CCURACY is the longest distance between two points. Inaccuracy does not have to consider whether it is right or not. It can, therefore, arrive at any result it wishes without -any trouble or annoyance. But accuracy has to weigh everything, to test cach step in the process. That is- why it is unpopular. Its work consists of a constant series of failures, produced in the most uninter- esting manner, To be accurate is always to be doubtful. The accurate man is therefore a coward. He is constantly building intrenchments. As all of the facts about any particular thing never can be collected, the accurate man has always something to learn. He never gets through. He is inter- minable. Nowhere does there exist a bigger bore. Having learned the habit of constant evasion and postponement, he is the incarnation of the immoral. He is the apotheosis of negation. The public has no use for him, The prhtic is right. Inaccuracy, on the other hand, is courageous, dramatic, and almost invariably delightful, It has the elements that make for success. It is moral because all of its actions arc based upon a disregard for self. This it sacrifices, with joyous disregard for consequences. Without it life would be too dull to live. RS. BOUNDERLY: Do you think it is safe for me to go abroad this year? There have been so many THE MILLENNIUM dreadful steamship disasters. Bounperty: What's the matter with taking out some “BREAKFAST IS NOW BEING SERVED IN THE DINING-KYAR, extra insurance? GENTLEMEN ” comicbooks.com