Life, 1916-02-03 · page 39 of 48
Life — February 3, 1916 — page 39: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains a serialized short story about a bank employee named Raymond who adopts a one-eyed cat called Cyclops. When Raymond discovers the cat's original owner—an attractive young woman named Miss 'Liza—he begins returning the cat to her each evening, creating a pretext for visits. The cat becomes a matchmaker, repeatedly returning to Raymond, forcing him to call on Miss 'Liza repeatedly until they fall in love. The story plays on the "accidental romance" trope common to early 20th-century sentimental fiction. The humor relies on the cat's agency and the protagonists' bashfulness—Raymond uses the cat as cover for courtship he's too shy to initiate directly. The page also features period cigarette and camera advertisements, typical of Life magazine's commercial content.
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Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
in he vigoros eis thee hroughor roilk fe. 1. Whites Herbert Pound mond like a twin brother. And every evening when Raymond came from busi- ness he stopped in Richmond market and bought meat for Cyclops. One day the man in the stall asked him if he were a family man, One Sunday morning Raymond strolled across Eutaw Place and up to the Madi- son Avenue address. The house was closed for the summer, but the policeman on the post told him who lived there. Summer was nearly at an end when Raymond happened to see in the paper that the people at the Madison Avenue house had returned to town. Now, Ray- mond was an honest man—had he been anything else he would not have been allowed to handle the bank's money—so on Saturday evening, with Cyclops under his arm, he sadly went up Madison Avenue to return the cat to his lawful owner. Boys on the street made personal remarks about the man and the cat, and Cyclops’ great eye turned green with wrath as he glared at them. A colored woman of the Mammy type answered his ring. She looked and gasped. Before Raymond could explain she thrust her head into the hall and shouted in strident tones: me heah, Miss ‘Liza! Bress de Lawd, ef heah ain't yo’ cat!” In a moment appeared the prettiest girl that Raymond's eyes had ever rested upon, She had blue eyes, and a mass of golden hair. Though comparatively young, and quite in the eligible class, Raymond was not a lady's man. With much embar- rassment he told the history of the cat. While she held Cyclops to her bosom, the girl explained that she had left him with a friend to keep for her during the summer, and he had run away. She had given him up for lost. “Dat cat know whut he doi snick+ cred the Mammy, who was standing back in the hall. “ Dat cat kin see further’n you kin ef he ain't got but one eye.” Raymond went off catless, All the way home he was thinking of a way by which he might call on the beautiful Miss ‘Liza. Sunday afternoon he went out to Herbert yton London Cigarettes Oc Tareyton London Smoking Mixture Si ._ Send 4c for sample. FALK TOBACCO CO.. 58 West 45th 8t.. New York. FOR _p MEN- OF BRAINS IGARS “MADE AT KEY WEST— All out-doors invites your Kodak. No trip too long, no conditions too rough for a Kodak outfit. You can take, title and finish the negatives on the spot by the Kodak system. You can make sure. Kodak catalog free at your dealer's, or by mail. EASTMAN KODAK CO., Rocuester, N. Y., The Kodak City. the country, to the woods, the flowers, the birds, and his soul was full of poetry and his mind of thoughts of the girl. That evening old Cyclops was back on the fence! His great eye had a gleam of mischievousness, Down the fence he slid, and straight to Raymond, who de- cided that he must take the cat back to his owner immediately. While Cyclops prowled about the parlor with tail erect, rubbing against every article of furniture, Raymond talked to Miss ‘Liza. Every evening Cyclops returned to Ray- mond, and every evening he as promptly took him home. Thus time passed from autumn into early winter. One evening, sitting before the little wood fire in her parlor, Raymond said to Miss ‘Liza: “I don't see but one way to keep our cat in one place!” Then Miss ‘Liza blushed, and said she didn’t see but one way either! Then he kissed her! And old Cyclops rubbed against both of them and purred to beat the band.