Life, 1915-03-11 · page 17 of 48
Life — March 11, 1915 — page 17: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains three separate satirical pieces from an era when Life was a humor magazine (not a lifestyle publication). **"The Good and Bad of Billy Sunday"** discusses Princeton's President Hibben rejecting evangelist Billy Sunday's campus speaking request. The satire argues Sunday's value is relative—he helps "the bad" but harms "the good," suggesting his crude revivalist methods disturb rather than uplift. **"Armament: It All Depends"** mocks American military preparedness debates by naming specific politicians: Augustus P. Gardner (a naval hawk) and Josephus Daniels (Secretary of the Navy). The satire suggests military needs depend absurdly on individual temperaments rather than rational policy. **"At the Quarrel"** offers a classical joke: Achilles boasts to Agamemnon that future joke-writers will treasure their dispute, making even Homer's heroes seem like fodder for comedy rather than tragedy. The elephant cartoon's caption is unclear without fuller context.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Elephant; 1 1T MADN'T BEEN FOR YOU, SHE WOULDN'T HAVE JiLTED ME! The Good and Bad of Billy Sunday THE delegation of Princeton students who requested President Hibben to invite Billy Sunday to speak in Alexander Hall found themselves put out on first. Presi- dent Hibben went to sce Billy perform in Philadelphia, and declined to have him in any building on the Princeton campus. Philadelphia is not far from Princeton, and Princeton students who felt that they must sce Billy doubtless got over and surveyed him and his wondrous works. He may come to Princeton, but he cannot gi his remarkable exhibition in Princeton University. Dr. Hibben probably wished to defend from Billy’s assault what reverence his students may have retained in an irreverent world. Billy is not good for reverence except in so far as his brutalities of speech produce reac- tion. His value seems to lie in his gift of disturbance. To break the crust of a hardened community he may be worth while. To people who have no reverence to start with, his explosions in his part of gospel-shocker may do no harm. It seems to depend upon a citizen’s condition whether Billy Sunday is more likely to do him good or harm. So far as can be judged from what one reads, Billy's effect is relative. He is good for the bad and bad for the good. If the Princeton students had been bad enough maybe Dr. Hibben would have let Billy at them, “DON'T WORRY, MISTER. RIGHT.” “py jovel 1 WISH He’D TAKE ME wiTit Hac!” HF'LL FIND HIS WAY HOME, ALL Armament: It All Depends THE amount of military and naval preparedness a nation needs depends upon situation and temperament. If we had Belgium's situation, an available army of six millions would look small to us. If, as a nation, we had the temperament of Hon. Augustus P. Gardner, to build less than six superdreadnoughts a year would be a sheer tempting of Providence. If we could persuade our Hon. Josephus Daniels to move to Japan, there permanently to reside, we might get along with one dreadnought less a year than otherwise. AT THE QUARREL “AW, WELL,” SAID AGAMEMNON TO ACHILLES, WHO HAD JUST ANNOUNCED HIS INTENTION OF DUCKING HIS NUT, “WHAT ARE YOU GOOD FOR, ANYWAY?” “JUST THINK WHAT A GREAT OLD STANDBY I'LL BE FOR THE JOKE WRITERS SOME DAY,” WAS THE TRIUMPHANT REJOINDER,