Life, 1917-06-21 · page 7 of 38
Life — June 21, 1917 — page 7: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page presents "The Little Cripple," a sentimental poem by Charlotte Becker about a disabled child confined to a tenement who cannot participate in normal childhood activities. The poem promises future solace through nature and friendship. The illustration below shows an upper-class woman (labeled "Mrs. Topping-Leader") hosting a "tilt-the-soil party"—apparently a wealthy philanthropist's organized charitable event or garden party for children. The satire appears to contrast the poem's message about genuine human kindness with what seems to be performative, fashionable charity by the wealthy elite. The juxtaposition suggests *Life* magazine's critique of how the privileged display benevolence as social entertainment rather than genuine aid to struggling children in tenements.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
The Little Cripple 4 IS home is in a dingy tenement, In stuffy squalor. Yet, their freer Make friends with chicks and dogs He has no playground but the city feet and birds and bees, street, He does not envy, since a promise And gather wild-flowers down a wood- f And he is lame, he cannot scamper sweet | fleet From some kind stranger lends his And his starved soul shall store up Like other children, nor find lively heart content: memories vent To comfort him of loneliness and pain, In romping games for boyish spirits Next summer he shall smell the new- Until his “ Fresh Air” fortnight comes pent mown hay, again. Charlotte Becker. MRS. TOPPING*LEADER GIVES A" THLL-THE-SOIL” PARTY comicbooks.com —