Life, 1918-09-05 · page 12 of 34
Life — September 5, 1918 — page 12: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a satirical poem about childhood poverty, written by Mary Denween Parker. It traces the loss of five dollars through a series of mishaps: a bicycle accident, a broken neighbor's window, dog taxes, roller skates that killed a rooster, and finally a hole in the pocket that lost the last dollar (spent on Thrift Stamps). The accompanying illustration shows children in ragged clothes, depicting working-class childhood hardship. The poem satirizes both children's financial precariousness and the era's emphasis on thrift and saving—ironically titled "His Dolors" (sorrows/dollars pun). The dialogue below about striking during wartime references WWI labor debates about patriotism versus workers' rights—a contemporary political tension when this was published.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
‘LIF E® His Dolors IVE little dollars (carning was a chore) ; Smash-up on my bicycle, and then there were four. Four little dollars—no savings bank for me! Broke the neighbors window, and then there were three. Three little dollars for heaps of shows will do Had to pay my dog tax, and then there were two. Two little dollars (roller skates are fun!) ; Killed the Jones's rooster, and then there was one. One lonely dollar—for Thrift Stamps, every penny; Hole in my pocket, and then there wasn’t any! Mary Denneen Parker “PYO you think it’s patriotic for you men to go out strike at this time when the country needs your work to win the war?” Leaner: But when will we have a better chance? “YE DARN FOOL, YE OUGHTA KNOW BETTER THAN HEM, HS FATHER KILLED THIRTY GERMAN attention as he went along. Nothing less than humanity, in this world and the next, has sufficed him as a subject He was by rights a novelist or an essayist—Balzac or Thackeray; Addison or Steele. He has had the gifts and industry for those employm but fortune having directed that he should invest all of th he columns aily newspaper, we have had them as newspaper icles—editorials, letters, travel, book reviews and the like. If he had spent himself in making books we should have had them on the shelf. As it is, we have only the memory of his writings. The record is in the files of the Courier-Journal, where our children can never find it. That is what it means to be a newspaper editor, But, after all, most books promptly die, and stay dead as long as last month's newspaper. The Colonel has not wasted his talents. He has had a lot of fun; he has roamed far and wide on the earth; he has known hundreds of interest- ing people, and day by day he has smitten the iron while it was hot Good luck and good health to him, and will he please continue to put discourse from time to time into the paper that he has ruled and served so long! The School of Experience Ifiliated sith the versity of Hard Knocks, Anywhere, US el O' DEST and largest in the world. Ideal location, con- venient to everywhere. s in all subjects, from to one hundred years, leading to degrees of Optimist, and Cynic iploma admits everywhere 1 or f course necessary for de ‘ tos ny time , rtunities a The Cracksman: Say, sercrANT! 1 WAS JUST COIN HROUGH THIS GUY'S SATE WHEN 1 COME ACKOST SOME PAPER WAT LOOKS LIKE Hk WAS SELLIN’ BUM BEEF TO THE ARM further part rs address Father Time Head Master, Anywhere, |