Life, 1919-06-19 · page 18 of 42
Life — June 19, 1919 — page 18: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
The main cartoon depicts a man (labeled "Emerson") being told by a woman not to be childish for wanting to "go out and play Indian with the boys." This satirizes adult male nostalgia and the period's casual appropriation of Native American imagery as entertainment. The text criticizes **Methodism** as excessively puritanical and tyrannical—comparing it unfavorably to Puritanism itself. The author argues Methodists impose their strict moral discipline on unwilling people, threatening individual liberty. The piece questions whether 20th-century American Methodism will repeat historical Puritan errors. A secondary item mocks **General Wood** (likely General Leonard Wood, a 1920 presidential candidate) as a political opportunist, noting his suddenly fashionable support for constitutional language in schools and teacher salary increases—transparent positioning for a presidential run. The "Sweet Stolen Fruit" vignette jokes about drinking becoming socially fashionable among the upper classes.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
“WISH 1 COULD Go OUT AND VLAY INDIAN WITH THE Boys” “NOW, EMERSON, DON'T BE CHILDISH” em be had for the suggestion that these centenary millions could not be Letter spent for civilization than to finance a great movement to civilize the Methodists, That they are excellent raw material of civilization there is no doubt; they are shock-troops of religion, and re- ligion is the basis of civilization; but the material needs a lot of patient labor before the rest of the world will con- template it without anxiety. For the world fears that the Methodists’ true aim is to make it Methodist, and it does not want to be that. It will to the woods first. It may easily Methodists, for many of them good, and lots of them are useful. it will never like a Methodist ci tion, and it never ought to. tuo much tion, too is wrong, Methodism is too puritan given to salvation by legisla narrow in its notion of wh. too inventive of new sins and too brash about providing le to punish them. So long as Methodists provide, and submit to, a discipline for themselves, there is no quarrel with them, but when, grown strong, they seek to impose their discipline on other and unwilling people, they loom up at once as a formidable and tyrannous force, of which account must be taken. Writing about Puritanism, Albert Nock once said: penalties It had energy, militant honesty strenuousness; and, according to its lights, made a great specialty of the square deal. But it tried to foist this on mankind ay the whole of life—and it is not the whole of life There are many other vital human claims that a civilization must satisfy if it, would win permanence, and Puritanism did not satisfy these, did not even recognize them. Man is a creature “of a large discourse.” He looked unmoved on the very virtues of the Puritans, and decided that they were not worth having at the price. Will Twentieth Century American Methodism repeat the errors of the Puritans, and ride presently to reac- tion? E.S. M. Progressing as a Candidate G SNERAL WOOD advised the re- cent Educational Congress at Albany that the language of the Con- stitution and the Declaration—the lan- guage of democracy—should he the only language in our public schools up to high-schools. He also favored a de movement to “ very mate- na rially increase the salaries of teachers.” Both points are well made, and will remind observers that General Wood is a candidate for President. E L imbibed. Yantton: I never did until getting a drink became a sporting propositi Sweet Stolen Fruit I didn’t know you ever RR ms, THE GO-CART SWEEPER AMUSES BABY ANU WORKS EASILY =x comicbooks.com