Life, 1916-10-12 · page 4 of 44
Life — October 12, 1916 — page 4: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
**Top Illustration:** A humorous cartoon depicting people reacting to news of a social event. The caption quotes someone reading about an upcoming "swell comin'-out party" and mentions doctor's orders to avoid excitement—likely satirizing the social pretensions of upper-class debutante balls and the irony of someone being medically advised against excitement while social events demand emotional engagement. **Bottom Section:** An obituary-style tribute to Frank Dempster Sherman, described as "the writer of the best light verse written in America." The piece praises his lyrical poetry and his long career teaching at Columbia University since 1894, noting he was "happy" in his vocation. This appears to be a sincere memorial rather than satire.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
608 Life’s Fresh Air Fund Unclusive of 1915, Live's Frees Atk Fuxo has been in operation twenty-nine years. In that time it has expended $137,495.60 and has given a fortnight in the ‘country to 37.778 poor city children. The Fund is supported entirely by bequests and voluntary contributions, which are ac- knowledged in this column. Previously acknowledged ‘ottage Services. Canandaigua Yet. Lal Miss K. Aycrigg: $8,241.47 ACKNOWLEDGED WITH THANKS. One box containing underclothing. overcoat, hat, four rompers and about a dozen toys suitable for a boy; and one box containing underclothing, dresses and about a dozen toys suitable for a girl, from Mrs. Frank J. Hermes, Quaker Ridge, New Rochelle, N. Y. tuto Enthusiast: vox't co so ¢. OUT PARTY IN TOW “ JusT MY LUC OVER THE KOUGH SPOTS, HAKOLD. UP ON THE GAS AND RELEASE YOUR CLUTCH A BIT. An Old Friend of “Life” The writer of the best light verse written in America, Professor Frank Dempster Sherman, died Tuesday (September roth), The pure lyric note—frail, impalpable, gracile—he sounded as truly and as beautifully as Herrick, Locker, Praed and Dobson at their best. Ss° “FP. A.” in the Tribune. It is an interesting estimate of a charming poet who respected his art, and practised it to admiration. He was one of the earliest contribu- tors to Lire, and a poem of his in its second number was written while he was still an undergraduate of Co- lumbia. His beginnings in literature go back to the days when Bunner edited Puck and Brander Matthews lived in the Twenties, and the verse market was narrower than it is now, and vers libre had not been invented, and the votaries were retailers and very thoughtful of rhyme and measure and quality generally. For nearly thirty years Mr, Sher- man had been a teacher in Columbia University, where since 1904 he had heen head of the Department of Graphics. Verse was his avocation, and in that he was happy. One laments that a life so well ordered, so valuable and so gracefully adorned should not have run through to a fuller term.