Life — November 15, 1883 — page 11: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# A Cat and Watering Can Comic Strip This is a wordless comic strip by Palmer Cox showing a cat's misadventure with a watering can. The sequence depicts: 1. A cat discovers a watering can 2-6. The cat investigates it, apparently getting wet or sprayed 7-9. The cat attempts to escape or shake off water 10-12. The cat continues struggling with the can, eventually appearing to overturn it completely The humor is purely visual slapstick—a common approach in early Life magazine comics. The joke relies on physical comedy: the cat's escalating frustration and the inevitable chaos resulting from its encounter with the watering can. There's no political or social satire here; it's simply entertainment through animal misadventure, typical of early 20th-century American humor.