Life — October 6, 1921 — page 10: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# "The Second Person Singular" by Morris Bishop This page combines a humorous essay about English grammar with a cartoon satirizing amateur sportsmen. **The Essay:** Bishop playfully discusses why English lacks a distinct second-person singular form (like French "tu"). He notes the grammatical absurdity that "you" addresses everyone equally—family, servants, God, animals—making social hierarchy linguistically invisible, unlike Catholic and Protestant theological distinctions. **The Cartoon:** Shows an amateur horseman who's been thrown, telling his friend "All right, old chap. I'll catch him," while his friend replies "No, let him go. I never want to see him again." The humor targets incompetent upper-class sportsmen pretending at riding and fox-hunting—a common target of satire mocking the idle wealthy.