Life, 1885-02-05 · page 5 of 16
Life — February 5, 1885 — page 5: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Analysis of Page 75, Life Magazine **Top Cartoon ("They Had Both Come by the Private Way"):** This cartoon depicts figures in a gondola, likely referencing a romantic or illicit rendezvous. The "private way" suggests discretion or secrecy. The accompanying text discusses Thackeray and Goethe as historical figures who maintained social propriety while engaging in questionable behavior—the satire mocks society's hypocrisy about public versus private conduct. **Bottom Cartoon ("Effect of the Back Number"):** A bearded figure (possibly representing an older establishment figure or philosopher) sits surrounded by books and architectural elements. The caption suggests satirizing outdated ideas or obsolete thinking—how "back numbers" (old issues, outdated people) become irrelevant despite their former prominence. Both cartoons appear to critique social pretense and the gap between public reputation and private reality.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
THEY HAD BOTH COME that Arnold have a whole gridiron to himself. I hear also that the “ Remnant” have been delegated to turn the spit. As I was taking my morning bath in the Styx the other day I saw Thackeray and Goethe riding back and forth with Charon, just for the sail and for the isolation it afforded from the crowd. One of the inherent qualities of Hell is that every man who comes here retains his own earthly estimation of himself, consequently Thackeray is a social and Goethe a scientific snob. I said to Goethe: “ Wie gehts," and Thackeray answered with a nasal elevation, that “they had n’t come through the Gafes at all but that they had both come EFFECT OF THE BACK NUMBER. BY THE PRIVATE WAY. the private way.” Thackeray soon hurried off, saying he had an engagement to meet the Duke of Albany who had brought him a letter missive from his mother, the Queen. I discovered afterwards that this was a lie direct, invented by Thackeray to increase his own importance in the eyes of Goethe. The truth was tha: he had been summoned by Peter to come and explain one of his (Thackeray's) old jokes in a back number of Punch, which had been sent to the gate- keeper by the Pope, who is especially anxious just now that Peter should not be too wide awake, on account of the numer- ous deaths among the British aristocracy. Not long after this Thackeray came to me begging that I would say forty- seven Aves for him, as Peter had promised, if I would consent, to put less sulphur in his bath next morning. I refused, and I heard later that the smell of sulphur next morning when | Thackeray took his bath had been so penetrating that even Luther had been unable to play his flute for sneezing. But I must close. I am to take tea myself with the Duke of Albany this evening. Yours, BULWER LyTTON. CALLS AND PUTS. A TRAMP invaded unannounced the private office of Mr. Russell Sage, the other day, and removing, with as much politeness as time and circumstances would admit, his fragmentary remnant of head-gear, proceeded to remark : “| have called in order to exchange the customary compli- ments of the festive season, and to mention casually the case of a poor but deserving widow with seventeen starving——” “ Put him out,” whispered the Wall street philanthropist to his ever faithful bouncer, and in another instant the surprised intruder might have been observed in the lively execution of a brilliant deringolade movement down the stairway. “If this, then, be the little game of ‘Calls and Puts,’” gruesomely muttered the much-broken-up Knight-Errant of the Soleless Upper, “ blank me if I don’t go in for ‘ Blind Pool’ next time,” comicbooks.com’