Life, 1915-08-26 · page 4 of 48
Life — August 26, 1915 — page 4: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page is not a political cartoon but rather a romantic short story illustrated with atmospheric artwork. The narrative concerns a young musician (apparently named Franz Schubert, based on the reference to "Master Schubert") who encounters the daughter of an Austrian Count in Vienna approximately a century before this publication. The story is sentimental rather than satirical: it depicts an unrequited or tragic love affair between a poor musician and an aristocratic young woman named Caroline. The illustration shows their intimate moment together. The narrative emphasizes the power of music to transcend social class barriers and preserve emotion across time—a Romantic-era sensibility that Life magazine presented for its middle-class readers' entertainment.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
the great Count Esterhazy a young musician walked rapidly, through fair Vienna’s streets, one morning nearly a hundred years ago. Little had he slept that night! And with the sun he was up—brushing away at his worn coat and inking the seams; trimming the edges of frayed cuffs and all the while wondering if it were true—or only a dream—that he, the unknown Franz Schubert, was to have the nobleman’s daughter for a pupil! Still, his beloved master, old Michael Holzer, often had said he some day might be a famous teacher —and even more, and now— Now he was standing in the splen- did hall of the palace and to him the Count was saying, “This is my daughter Caroline.” Ghe Stoty of a Love that lives in Deathless PTR There fluttered down a roe 5 ++ + the prise of the great soul ’ ++....She stood before him—that great Count’s daughter—a child in years, in innocence. Her eyes—what mirrored purities they were! She looked and gently pitied as she looked. She smiled—and touched then such a spark of love that it will glow in song, in other centuries in a World grown old! Ah! how he lived for but that lesson after that! The week was all too long a time to wait! How, when he guided her dainty hands about the keys, his own would tremble! How dumb were words that lay within his heart! Did she understand that day she Melody Biz said, “Master, speak to me through the keys?” His soul spoke then. His heart and life leaped forth as then he played. Could she know? Did she understand? That evening came a note in her dear hand. “In three days we leave for Hungary to stay ’til Autumn,” it said. Ah; could he but find a way to give her the message in his heart his lips refused to utter! v It was the night before she was to leave. The air was still and the moon rode in the high heaven, All the World lay in a shining veil. Love had led the master’s feet til he stood beneath her chamber, his head bared to the jeweled sky—in his eyes the purity of love supreme. comicbooks.com