Life, 1883-07-19 · page 7 of 16
Life — July 19, 1883 — page 7: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Analysis of "The Ocean Steamer, No. 2" This cartoon satirizes a poker game aboard a ship, likely referencing common gambling among travelers. Two rotund men flank a central figure, appearing to play cards in close quarters. The sketch style emphasizes their corpulence and suggests comic desperation or intensity around the game. The accompanying story (by Richard Weightman, dated New Orleans, July 6th, 1883) depicts a card game where the "Doctor" character repeatedly loses, with other players mocking his misfortune. The joke centers on his insistence that luck will turn despite obvious failure—a common target of period satire about gullible gamblers. The cartoon likely mocks the folly of ocean-voyage gambling and male vanity around games of chance.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
> LIFE: seemed to be in bad luck, and to give him a chance he'd make it $40. The opening man showed his pair of Jacks and fled. The Doctor went up to $50. Everybody quit except Starr, who said, “ All right, Doctor ; you're a good man,” and stood the raise. Starr drew three cards. The Doctor stood pat, and, with a blighting smile, bet $10. Starr looked at his hand, grinned sleepily, and said, “ Well, Doctor, this will put you even. Never mind, though, “I'll call!” The Doctor couldn't restrain himself any longer. He threw down his cards with a yell that curdled the blood of every listener— “What have you got?” “I?” says Starr, innocently. “Oh, I have n't got anything. Pair of fours, maybe. Yes, a pair of fours.” The Doctor had nothing at all—he had been bluffing for even. “You called me on a pair of fours? Didn't you see I stood pat?” “Why, no!” says Starr, “I didn’t notice.” “Then,” shrieked the Doctor, “J wish you'd pay some attention to the game!" RICHARD WEIGHTMAN. New Orleans, July 6th, 1883. A cotoren Press Association in St. Louis is now wrestling with the question “How to make the Editorial Page Efficient,” and ed- itors all over the country are anxiously waiting to hear the answer. THE OCEAN STEAMER. NO. 2. 29 ODE TO OLD ENGLAND. Sune By A Dupe's BerrotueD. WE love our sweet Manhattan Isle, We love our proud Fifth Avenue, We have a special penchant for The springs of Saratoga, too ; We find great comfort in the thought That we were once of no account ; We view with rapture families That quick to wealth and fashion mount ; But foreign goods and foreign men We prize all other things above ; Though born in young America, Our mother country best we love. England, think what thou hast sent us From thy treasures to content us; Pettit’s plays and Turner's pictures, Whistler's dreams and Ruskin’s mixtures, Froude’s account of all thy quarrels, Tupper’s wit and Swinburne’s morals ; Punch's jokes and “ Ginx’s Baby,” Davitt's speeches—finished, maybe ; Boucicault with dramas frisky, Flavored well with Irish whiskey ; “* Pinafore," the sempiternal, And the Zimes, the great diurnal ; Cheap reprints of all thy novels, Fit for banquet halls or hovels ; Generous hats and scanty trousers, Terriers Skye, the best of mousers ; Ulsters lengthy, single glasses, Mutton for the higher classes ; Oscar Wilde, the exegetic, Priest of all that was cesthetic ; Collars high from Piccadilly, And the fragrant Jersey Lily ; Bass's beer in pewter mug, And the soft, sonorous pug. We love thy legends bare and worn, Thy long debates we read with tears, No poet moves our fond young hearts To such emotion as thy peers, With even more than Oxford ties Our souls to thee are closely bound ; And though we love the dollar well, We'd rather have an English pound. But still thy single-eye-glass'd men We prize all other things above ; And, born in young America, Our mother country best we love. W. J. Henperson. comicbooks.com