Life, 1883-11-08 · page 10 of 16
Life — November 8, 1883 — page 10: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Analysis of Life Magazine Page 236 This page contains two distinct pieces of satirical content: **"The Margin o' Moonshine Land"** (top) is whimsical nonsense verse by J.M.A., featuring invented fantastical creatures ("Goo-goo," "Whangoo," "oberish oogers") in a dreamlike landscape. It's playful absurdist humor with no political meaning—pure imaginative entertainment. **"Cabin Laconics"** (bottom) by "Brudder Romulus" presents dialect-heavy folk wisdom spoken in exaggerated African American vernacular. These are brief moral observations about human nature: men are skilled at self-deception, thieves are worse when stealing from you personally, loneliness follows losing old friends, etc. The heavy dialect ("jes'," "kase," "dey") reflects period conventions of minstrelsy-influenced humor. While the observations themselves are sensible, the presentation relies on racial caricature stereotypes common to early 20th-century American satire magazines.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
ROO) by WaGALLSSk THE MARGIN O’ MOONSHINE LAND. A PRANKLET. HERE the ghost of the Goo-goo goes to roost On the topmost tine of a red-ripe star ; Where the Whangoo whistles and whets his voice And the throstle twavers afar,— Where the owls hoo hoo Till their lips grow blue, And the eevers answer a lonesome coo, Where the moon mists drip from the lid of night, And the Hoodoo sports with a skein of shine; Where the lamp of the light’ning Ong falls faint And the Whickwhacks wheel in line, When the wind blows weak From his swollen cheek, And the voice o’ the Echo scarce can speak. Where the Twinwelves ravel the Rainbow's ends, When the grass gleams, gemmed with a diamond te dew ; Where the oberish oogers pirouette, And the Night-notch nods at you, Till your eyes grow hot, And you wot not what— The shape o' the Sun, or—a scarlet blot! J.M.A CABIN LACONICS. BY BRUDDER ROMULUS. DDE m2n am mighty smaht wid figgers dat kin git de right an- swer when he sets down to add up his own sins, De same win’ dat blows out de taller dip, kin'les de burnin’ cabin. Heaps ob people b’lieve de sun rises in de wes’ jes’ 'kase dey am too lazy to git up in de mawnin’ in time to fin’ out for demselves, De thief am a heap bigger rascal when he happens to git inter yo’ own chicken-roos'. Er yo' dun go ‘long fru’ life widout makin’ new frien’s, you am apt to hab a mighty lonesome time ob it when de ole ones am turned inter de new pastur’ lot. Er yo’ happen to be a gen'lum, nebber git inter an argyment wid de common loafer ‘bout de muddy side ob life ; de odds am all ergin’ yo’ kase he am right at home wile yo’ am only vis'tin’, De chap dat knows jes’ how menny bones dar am in his buddy, an’ how well dey am fitted togedder, trabbels up hill all de way when he sets out to be an atheis’. De minnits dat we lose am berry ap’ to bodder us ‘bout gittin’ a good grip on de new minnits dat keep a cummin’; it am de dead Ieabs dat kiber up de path fru’ de big woods,