Life, 1886-08-05 · page 11 of 16
Life — August 5, 1886 — page 11: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Page 81 of Life Magazine - Content Analysis This page contains three distinct pieces: **"Set to Love" (top):** A romantic poem-cartoon about a man who loses a tennis match to his love interest. The joke plays on double meaning: he loses because his emotional investment ("my love") distracts him, just as it would in romance itself. **"Aesop Revised" (middle):** Three fables with modern urban settings and a shared moral about self-awareness. A sheep fails to attract a wolf by muddying water (the wolf prefers fresh meat), a fly avoids a spider's obvious trap, and the moral warns that people aren't always foolish despite appearances. These satirize naïve or transparent attempts at manipulation. **Political Commentary (bottom right):** Two brief articles. One describes finding a lost wallet with $165—rewarding honesty. The other criticizes New York politics, sarcastically suggesting that Philadelphia's corrupt political "machine" (the Broadway railroad syndicate) may soon rotate its operations to other cities like a theatrical touring company. It's dark satire about corruption becoming systematized and mobile across cities.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
SET TO LOVE. OME say I played too near the net ‘When with my love I made a bet That I would beat her in a set Of tennis. For as we played she won each game, And so the set. Was I to blame? It was my love! It was the same In tennis, #ESOP REVISED. N old Sheep, masquerading as a lamb, pranced up and down a stream, vainly trying to attract the attention of a Wolf, who took no notice of her antics. This so exas- perated the Sheep that she splashed still more and called out: “Tsay, Mr. Wolf, why don’t you come after me? Don't you see how I am making your drinking water all muddy ?” The Wolf, without raising his head, replied : “Keep on; you’re in no danger from me, madam. I’ve no fancy for old mutton ; besides the stream runs from me to you.” FLY was gaily disporting himself upon the ceiling, when a Spider, who had been watching the Fly in the vain hope that he would come in his direction, finally called out: “Tsay, Mr. Fly, won’t you drop in and be a little sociable this morning ?” “Thanks,” said the Fly; “ modesty forbids. your line this morning.” MorRAL: All folks are not fools, even if their heads are turned upside down occasionally. I’m not in HE best case I have ever met with of confidence being immediately rewarded was on the 1st of April last, when Cholly, walking up Sixth avenue, saw a pocketbook, very dilapidated, lying on the pavement. Every one looked at it and passed, but Cholly put his foot on it and was re- warded with $165 and no claimant, no boy, no string, and no fool. PPARENTLY we have not enough capital in New York to run local politics satisfactorily; but an ex- State Senator has lately explained that a new political power “with unlimited capital ” has come to us, in the Philadelphia syndicate which captured the Broadway railroad. If we were badly off before, what must we prepare for when we have to import politicians from Philadelphia? But a rotary motion is natural to rings; and it may be that a new system is to be adopted, by which local rings are to pass from one city to another; an especially brilliant combination or novelty, making engagements in several cities and playing the great drama of “ Corruption” to crowded houses, on the regular theatrical circuit. It would be some relief to get rid of our old political stock actors on this plan, if only for a while. comicbooks.com