Life, 1883-06-14 · page 14 of 16
Life — June 14, 1883 — page 14: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page features four sequential comic panels depicting anthropomorphic mice attending a dance ("hop"). The narrative follows a mouse from invitation through various dance movements—the waltz, the racket (vigorous dancing), to an exhausted "Whew!" The humor is visual slapstick: mice in human clothing and situations, with exaggerated physicality during dancing. The artist is Palmer Cox, known for his "Brownie" characters. Below are unrelated satirical snippets from Life magazine: - A quip about pretty girls in calico dresses - Criticism of the electric chair as "too humane" - A joke about a baseball player named Sullivan allegedly not thrashing umpires (suggesting he had a reputation for doing so) - Complaints about a recurring newspaper article about poor summer weather The page exemplifies Life's mix of illustrated humor and editorial commentary on contemporary social issues and personalities.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
> LIFE: THE FIRST HOP OF THE SEASON. THE INVITATION, THE WALTZ. THE RACKET. WHEW! ‘Tue best thing in print—a pretty girl in a calico Ir affords us great delight to see the article headed dress.—Oil City Derrick. “A Year Without a Summer" making its fifty-fourth annual tour. We should feel lonesome if we didn't see the article in dur exchanges about this time of Tue new patent electric chair for the execution of yeat.—Norristown Herald. criminals is, it seems to us, altogether too humane. The ordinator chair, for instance, would furnish Many persons have been disappointed upon hearing plenty of pul shment of a more decided character,— that Sullivan’s especial function as a bass-ball player Lowell Courier. does not consist in thrashing the umpire.-/. Y. Graphic. comicbooks.com