Life, 1886-05-06 · page 12 of 16
Life — May 6, 1886 — page 12: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Life Magazine Satire Analysis This page contains two main satirical pieces: **"Their Best Friend" (top):** A mock-serious advertisement for a wedding service that literally delivers brides via ladder. The humor mocks both the commercialization of marriage and Victorian propriety—the "Company" offers ladder-climbing as a dignified alternative to traditional courtship, complete with gilded souvenir ladders and commemorative poems. The satire targets how marriage had become a commodified transaction. **"From Afar" (bottom):** Life reproduces what it claims is a Greek newspaper woodcut depicting American diplomat Sunset Cox in an unflattering scene with Turkish figures. The joke relies on satirizing both modern Greek artistic standards (dismissing them as crude) and contemporary Greek-Turkish tensions. By "sympathizing with the Ottoman," Life mocks America's pretension while making light of real geopolitical conflict. The page exemplifies Life's brand of social satire through exaggerated, absurdist scenarios targeting marriage customs and international relations.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
264 - LIFE. After entering, the groom is driven to his girl's house, the ladders are placed in position, a blanket is held underneath to catch the maid if she falls, the lady is secured and the wedding ceremony is then consummated en route, This is doing the thing with dignity, and no pulse need throb above forty during the entire operation, A short section of the ladder, gilded or ebonized, will afterward be presented to the happy pair, as a memento ; and they can hang it on their walls among the pictures. To each couple the Company also presents a copy of the postal card edition of the following poem, written specially for our trade. The poem accompanies the souvenir ladder and is entitled : “ Lvalue that above the rest, The newly-married said, in glee ; ‘THEIR MEST FRIEND. “ For down those rungs, with throbbing breast, One night a maiden came to me. And after we were safely wed Her parents sent the ladder he 1 saw—where should have hung a plague— ‘Gar tine gihtAwanail they anid. A twelve-foot ladder on the wall. ‘And now we hold it very dear.” With dainty bows 't was covered o'er, : In modern decorative way ; The Company have made special arrangements for marriage And, in the light, it glittered, for notices, and can contract at club rates in one hundred different ‘The sides and rungs with gilt were gay. papers, P Wallace Peck, Amid their costly bric-a-brac— Proofs, etchings, vases, statues tall, O PQMHOL . FROM AFAR. ‘ W E have reproduced for the higher edu- wa’ dnote: $ atp Olbepeg ual ahi tyro cation of our readers a page from p Serra Talo pela ptr, oa an Athenian contemporary. The magnificent wood-cut, done apparently on spruce with a hatchet, represents the Hon. Sunset Cox as he—but the legend beneath the picture ex- plains all. If this cut is a fair specimen of modern Greek art, it might not be unfair to insinuate that the modern Athenian is no better than his ancestors. We also give the title of the paper, which of .course will make everything clear to our readers. Anything in the way of a translation would, we feel, be superfluous, It is gratifying to our national vanity that such things should be said of our representa- tive, and although we fail to recognize the gentlemen who accompany him, we feel sure they are all they pretend to be; perhaps more. The relations between Greece and Turkey are somewhat strained just at present, and this sample of Greek art inclines us to sym- pathize with the Ottoman, TO AMERICANS. HARLES READE'’S nephew, Compton Reade, writes to American news- papers, announcing that it is proposed to put a medalion portrait of the novelist in St. Paul's Cathedral, and inviting the contribu- Eilts xpoytts vty oder a xi bya ele stress peo tions of Americans. Mr. Lowell is named ice Saree Sete Be among those interested. Money may be sent to Harper & Brothers. A Damp Escort—The rain-bow. READY-MAID—The old maid. comicbooks.com