Life, 1919-05-01 · page 15 of 44
Life — May 1, 1919 — page 15: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a humorous fable illustrated with two woodcut-style drawings. The main narrative concerns a porcupine with fourteen quills who encounters various dogs (a British Bulldog, Irish Greyhound, French Poodle, and Italian dog). The porcupine represents a defensive position, while the dogs appear to represent different nationalities—likely a satirical commentary on international relations or tensions between nations portrayed as animal characters. The dogs attempt to "polish" the porcupine's quills, which serves as metaphor for some form of negotiation or conflict resolution. The second illustration shows an unrelated domestic scene about a mysterious box and a garden. The content is primarily literary/fable-based rather than explicitly political, appearing aimed at general amusement.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
“L ERE - aah The Fourteen-Pointed Porcupine aud looked askance” “They stopp a fretful Porcupine, and fourteen quills had he— urteen sharp quills with fourteen points as sharp as sharp could be. Just where the lane was narrowest he sat with frown severe And shook his fourteen pointed quills at all who ventured near, As thus the fretful Porcupine the right of way defied, Up came a British Bulldog and, trotting at his side, A slim Italian Greyhound and a Poodle Dog from France, And wher. they saw the Porcupine they stopped and looked askance. Said the Bulldog to the Poodle, most politely, “ After you!” To which the Poodle affably responded, “ Aprés vous!” And passed it to the Greyhound, who hastened to decline In whatever the Italian is for “ Thank you, not for mine!” Then said the bland French Poodle to the fretful Porcu- pine, “Mon cher! I never saw such quills as yours, with points so fine! But why, when all their fourteen points are bright as bright can be, The quiils themselves should be so dull, I really cannot see! “All that they need is polishing, and if you will permit, My friends and I will lend a paw and rub them up a bit.” The Porcupine protested, begged, implored, but all in vain. Without ado the dogs fell to, and rubbed with might and main. They scoured, rubbed and polished and they scrubbed each separate quill— The Bulldog and the Greyhound and the Poodle Dog— until The Porcupine grew fearful, for he saw, to his distress, That as each quill grew brighter still, its point grew less and less. “Enough!” cried he. “Can you not see you'se rubbing them away In vain he plea 1s points grow smaller and more beautifully ded, scolded, as he saw, to his dismay, Until, instead of fourteen points, there were no points at all Then said the fretful Porcupine, “ What do we wait for, pray path is straight before us. May I not lead the way? came, a Parthian volley-shot “Yes, you certainly may 7 "Mid flying dust the answ Of English, French, It: not!” Oliver Herford. “TJPLON s to a lot of m it told the truth.” “How does he know?” NCLAIR says he sent an article on Russia gazines, and they all returned it because WHEN IT's TIME TO SPADE HIS GARDEN, UNCLE H A RUMOR ABOUT A MYSTERIOUS BOX HIS GRANDFATHER BURIED