Life — December 11, 1884 — page 18: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

HUMPTY DUMPTY. HEY say that folks who perch upon the brink Of cafion deep or awful precipice A morbid impulse feel, as back they shrink, To jump the edge off into the abyss ; And now and then some feather-head will dash Over the cliff to fundamental smash. So often with a man when he has won ‘The passing favor of a maid demure, Not satisfied with having well begun, And over-eager to make all secure, Blind to his fate and heedless of his stops, With mad, spasmodic previousness he pops. Poor, dizzy fool: instead of winning more He only loses what he had before. comicbooks.com