Life, 1915-04-08 · page 16 of 44
Life — April 8, 1915 — page 16: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page satirizes the obsessive study of Latin grammar among American students. The poems parody "The Old Oaken Bucket," a sentimental American hymn, by replacing nostalgia for home with absurd devotion to Latin conjugations and declensions. The humor targets the tedious, arcane nature of classical language instruction—students treasure "moss-covered Latin" and dodge real-world activities (sports, social life) to study grammatical minutiae like "bow-legged compounds" and "verbal gerundives." The small cartoon at top right appears to mock German stereotypes following World War I atrocities. The "Widow" illustration likely references wartime loss. The "Suffragettes in the street" caption suggests dismissive contemporary attitudes toward women's voting rights activism. Overall, this is genteel satirical humor targeting academic pedantry and era-specific social anxieties.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
‘LIFE: This moss-covered Latin I hail as a treasure, t Its magical value brings peace to my soul; It raises old Ned with my fiect-footed leisure, And hurriedly causes the moments to roll. How gladly I seize it with hands that are eager, And quick to ‘my study I scamper pell-mell; In scanning its pages I dodge all the fever, The measles, the shingles and smallpox as well. | I tenderly open my mind to receive it As poised on my table it joyfully drips; No hair-raising ball game could tempt me to leave it, Though filled with the things which America sips; Their fuss from the diamond fills all the creation, In tribute to home runs they noisily yell I close down my window in anticipation And cling to my Latin which I love so well. Nos disco Latinam, Nos vident ad stellam, Nos bibo some aquam, Quod influo adsum. “T WONDER if the Germans have actually committed all those atrocities?” “T wouldn’t be surprised. I once had a German cook.” IT MAY MERELY MEAN THAT THE SUFFRAGETTES ARE IN THE STREET The Old Oaken Bucket (Revised by W. A. Smith.) OW dear to my heart is this thing they call Latin When fond recitation presents it to view. The clauses, the phrases, all dressed in their satin, And every loved ending that makes us feel blue; The high-sounding doo-dads and outlandish diet, The slave with a spear and the Roman who fell, The verbal gerundive, the noun crouching nigh it, Are hidden in Latin which I love so well. Chorus. That time-honored Latin, That iron-bound Latin, That moss-covered Latin Which hangs on so well. The subject, the verb and the bow-legged compound, The flexible gerund and subjunctive mood, The clauses of purpose encourage the pronoun To take the possessive and silently brood; The loose-jointed supine and verbal declensions Join hands with conjunctions and joyfully dwell In temporal clauses of Gothic dimensions And e’en in the Latin which I love so well. THE WIDOW comichooks.