Life, 1883-03-15 · page 12 of 16
Life — March 15, 1883 — page 12: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Political Cartoon Analysis: "Cornered" The main cartoon depicts a man on roller skates encountering a street corner while boasting that skating "with a wind at your back" is "as good as a sleigh ride." The satire's point is explicit in the caption: he forgot that "cross winds always prevail at street corners"—suggesting his overconfidence will result in disaster at the corner. This appears to be a general-audience humorous cartoon about human folly and underestimating practical obstacles, rather than political satire. The page also includes period advertising (Pyle's Soap, Eno's Fruit Salt, Oscar Wilde lectures), poetry excerpts, and brief joke items about digestive weakness and funeral singing. These are typical Life magazine filler content from the late 19th century—clever wordplay and light humor intended for genteel readers rather than sharp political commentary.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
CORNERED. “WITH A WIND AT YOUR BACK IT IS AS GOOD AS But it entirely escaped his memory that cross winds A SLEIGH RIDE,” remarked Old Snoggins, as he glided always prevail at street corners, over the pavement on a pair of roller skates, advertisements of Pyle’s O. K. Soap, and Eno’s Fruit Salt, or a lecture by Oscar Wilde : THE INSENSIBLE PLANT! “ Then the pied windflowers and the tulip tall, And narcissi, the fairest of them all, Who gaze on their eyes in the stream's recess, Till they die of their own dear loveliness ; And the rose, like a nymph to the bath addressed, Which unveiled the depth of her glowing breast, Till, fold after fold——{See next number of the Police Gatette for the conclusion of this thrilling poem, by Shelley, the great ATHEIST. They sell it on y Falls a faded violet. A CoLoNeL who used to assert Sweet and faint as its fragrance, steal " That naught his digestion could hurt, Out from the leaves of my “ Lucille Was forced to admit Tender memories, ane 1 feel ‘ That his weak point was hit, A sense of longing and regret. Ww i hot f t. Out from the leaves of my “ Lucille” hen they gave.him/ ot shor for dessen Falls a faded violet. WALTER LEARNED. Tue best voice for a funeral hymn ;—a burytone. comicbooks.com