Life, 1885-01-08 · page 12 of 16
Life — January 8, 1885 — page 12: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# "Combination No. 3" — Life Magazine Satire This page contains two satirical cartoons about urban poverty and a mock-dictionary entry on "Hunger." **The Cartoons:** The sketches show street scenes—a youth reading a "Real Estate" notice on a wall, and a woman with children. These illustrate the entry's subject. **The Satire:** The "Revised Dictionary" entry defines "Hunger" as a disease afflicting the poor, with bitter humor. It notes that politicians, clergy, editors, and officials are immune, while "poets suffer exceedingly" and it's "chronic" for "tramps." The remedy section mocks charitable organizations ("The Society for the Improvement of the Condition of the Poor") as useless. **The Point:** This is scathing social commentary on class inequality and hypocrisy. Life's editors mock both the wealthy's indifference to poverty and the ineffectiveness of contemporary charity. The joke is dark: "hunger" isn't really a disease—it's a symptom of systemic inequality that only affects the powerless, while the privileged remain untouched.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
COMBINATION, COMBINATION NO. 3. FROM THE REVISED DICTIONARY UNGER (Germ., Hunger ; Fr., Fatm)—An epidemic disease, found chiefly in large cities. Of extreme an- tiquity, being mentioned in the Bible, the Rig-Veda and other ancient authorities. Its symptoms are a white or yellow skin, dark circles around the eyes, falling in at the waist and the development of an insatiable appetite. The disease is cor- rosive and frequently attacks the legs and seats of trowsers and the collar, sleeves and buttons of shirts, vests and coats. In such cases it is generally incurable. Certain vocations are more often attacked by the complaint than others. Priests, ministers, aldermen, congressmen and Presidential candidates enjoy a remarkable immunity from its ravages. Editors are never known to have it, while poets suffer from it exceedingly. Lawyers contract it at times, while with painters, dudes, free-lunch fiends and tramps it is chronic. Dr. T. DeWitt Talmage and Prof. John B. Gough state that under certain conditions it is of spontaneous generation. In several cases the habitual use of matutinal cocktails, or of the deadly milk punch, or of hard cider, or of Jersey Apple- Jack, have been known to produce it in aggravated form. A common error is that it is sometimes preceded by insol- vency or bankruptcy. This is absolutely untrue. REMEDY.— Diet, fresh air and exercise. Pickles and toothpicks should be sedulously avoided. Cut plug and stale beer.are recommended by Milesian and Neapolitan ex- perts, but are of little or no benefit. Several nostrums are in the market, put up by an organization known as “ The Society for the Improvement of the Condition of the Poor.” They are utterly devoid of virtue. Several ecclesiastical associations are endeavoring to stamp out the disease, but they have thus far made no progress whatever. HE Fireman’s Annihilator is properly called a fire-escape. For the moment a fireman ventures on one of them he is sure to escape death by fire in a way more promptly and with far less pain. The question naturally arises whether the inventors of these humane instruments will in the hereafter be so fortunate. A TIME-PIECE—Every hour. comicbooks.com