Life, 1914-11-12 · page 28 of 48
Life — November 12, 1914 — page 28: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
The main cartoon depicts a domestic scene where Mrs. H. proposes inviting new neighbors to dinner. The joke hinges on social obligation mixed with practical advantage: she'll invite them because the butcher mistakenly delivered *their* meat order to the H's house. The satire targets bourgeois social conventions—the facade of neighborly generosity masking self-interest and convenience. Inviting neighbors to consume food meant for them presents as charity while actually solving a minor domestic problem. The page also reviews theatrical productions: a morality play called "Experience" (structured like "Everyman," showing a young man encountering vices personified); a musical called "The Lilac Domino"; and a melodrama "The Battle Cry" set in Kentucky mountain feuds. The reviews are straightforward theatrical criticism rather than satire.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Mrs. H. Mr, H.:) wnat ror? I THINK I'LL ASK THOSE NEW PEOPLE NEXT DOOR TO DINE WITH US TO-NIGHT. “IT ONLY SEEMS PAIR, BECAUSE THE BUTCHER, BY MISTAKE, LEFT THEIR MEAT ORDER HERE,” Trying to Please the Hard to Please “ID XPERIENCE” is a morality play, even more up to date than its immediate predecessor in the same line, “ Everywoman”. In this case the leading character is a young men instead of a woman. In other respects the proc- ess is much the same, as he is taken through life encountering on the way all the vices personified as humans, being accompanied on his pilgrimage by Experi- ence and winding up finally redeemed by Love and Hope. All these personifications Youth meets in the surroundings of to-day—Fashion, Frivolity, Beauty, Wealth, Intoxication and Passion, for instance, in a gorgeous dancing restaurant; Despair, Chance and Superstition in a gambling hell; Frailty, Indolence, Poverty and Law in a Bowery saloon, and Habit, Degradation and Crime in a cocaine dive. Although “Experience” is not likely to tear the laurels from John Bunyan or the author of “Everyman”, it is entirely worth seeing as out of the usual line of theatrical NET NIE PKR USICAL shows haven't occupied as many Broadway theatres as usual this season, but that branch of the industry is beginning to assert itself again. Mr. Dippel, hitherto of grand opera fame, stoops to conquer with it and sives us “The Lilac Domino” as his first venture in his new field of management. Outside of the fact that the piece is delightfully sung by both principals and chorus and that the company has apparently been chosen with this ability more in mind than with reference to Broadway popularity, “The Lilac Domino” is much like the numerous other Viennese compositions that have reached us through various channels. “The Lilac Domino” is devoid of many of the things that appeal to the usual musical show public, but it has much to recommend it to music lovers. be one et HE most strenuous drama in town is “ The Battle Cry”. It has rifles and ammunition enough to equip a very respectable military force, and gives us a vivid idea of how these are employed in the feudal warfare of the Kentucky mountains. The fighting is threaded on a romance which comicbooks.com