Life, 1925-08-13 · page 21 of 36
Life — August 13, 1925 — page 21: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a 1920s-era *Life* magazine story by Octavus Roy Cohen, a white author known for dialect fiction featuring African American characters. The piece employs racial stereotypes common to the era: it presents Black Birminghamites using exaggerated dialect ("ain't got nothin' else but") and frames their social ambitions and romantic schemes as comedic material for white readers. The illustration shows what appears to be a domestic scene with several figures in conversation. The story concerns Florian Shapley's pursuit of the wealthy Euphrosyne Washington, with a rival named Hubert Dante Grant complicating matters. The satire relies on minstrelsy conventions: depicting African Americans as amusing, foolish, or morally compromised. Cohen's repetitive catchphrase and dialect-heavy prose were considered entertaining to the magazine's white audience, treating Black social life as exotic spectacle rather than depicting authentic human experience.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
* LIFE - Nothin’ Else Buz. A Delightful Yarn of the Colored “Folk” in Illustrated Birmingham, Alabama, which will do until By another Octavus Roy Cohen story comes along. « Taare said Florian Shapley, “is just what I ain't got nothin’ else but.” It may well be said to have been among the hap- piest moments of Florian Shapley’s life. That young ad- venturer in the financial fringes of colored Birmingham's social set had for long been casting eyes of undeniable interest and admiration in the particular direction of Miss Euphrosyne Washyngton, who was reliably reported to combine much unrevealed wealth with obvious attractions of face and figure. And now there had come Lawyer Kipp to Florian Shapley to tell Florian in so many words that Miss Washyngton was not without a favorable reaction to his suit, undeclared though it was, and that a public declara- tion of her sentiments might well be expected to follow an open avowal from him. “That,” Lawyer Kipp had said in so many words, “is just what she ain't got nothin’ else but.” There remained, clearly, only the matter of secking out the dazzling Euphrosyne and telling her in a few honeyed words, of which Florian ever had an ample stock, that the « “That,” she re- peated — indig- nantly, “is just what I ain't got nothin’ else but.” Sanford Tousey prospect of a continuance of the Shapley existence without her was vile and bleak, and there would then ensue for Florian a period, long as life itself, in which the occupation of clipping coupons could pleasantly be varied with the business of gazing frecly upon a decorative spouse. One fly, to be sure, did there remain in the ointment, a big, dark fly named Hubert Dante Grant, who had but recently arrived in town from Vicksburg with an expansive smile and a collection of stories all highly reflective of great credit upon himself. This Grant, it had reached Florian’s cars, was buzzing around Euphrosyne himself, like a repulsive menace. Briefly, Florian outlined to Lawyer Kipp his plan for doing away with Grant in such a fashion as not only to lose a rival but to cement his own position. “That,” he concluded, “is just what I ain't got nothin’ else but.” Lawyer Kipp, who was not for nothing known to Bir- mingham as a man who said much in little and said it well, indicated his acceptance of Florian’s plan and made a comicbooks.com