Life, 1886-11-11 · page 12 of 16
Life — November 11, 1886 — page 12: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Life Magazine Page 296: Three Satirical Pieces **"The Effect Upon a Jury"** (top): A cartoon mocking courtroom photography and evidence. The joke suggests that a photograph of lovers, when presented to a jury with magnified detail, would show not just the couple but incriminating background details (furniture, wallpaper)—proving the act occurred, its location, and the guilty party. It's satirizing both the supposed "objectivity" of photography as legal evidence and the absurdity of expecting juries to reach conclusions from circumstantial visual details. **"The Hare and the Tortoise"**: A fractured retelling of Aesop's fable where the Hare actually wins by a narrow margin, then the Tortoise drowns himself in a pool. The moral states: "Money makes the Hare go"—cynically suggesting that in modern life, speed and financial advantage trump slow persistence, inverting the original fable's lesson about patience. **"A Successful Writer"**: A brief dialogue where Gus confuses Shakespeare's character *Adonis* with a recent stage production titled *Adonis*, praising Shakespeare's genius for work he didn't write—mocking theatrical ignorance.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
THE EFFECT UPON A JURY. What will the photograph show? The dmeeling lover, with his upturned face wearing that yearning, imploring come-to-me-darling-of-my-heart expression, which is only possible at the supreme moment of passion; while, beneath will be seen the familiar figures of the materno-paternal rug, and in the background, the well-known wall paper and pictures— all proving (1), the act; (2), the scene of the act; (3), the actor himself. With such a picture (and a microscope), the injured woman can meet the villain’s “No” with a negative worth two Wallace Peck. THE HARE AND THE TORTOISE. NE day, a Hare, who was out for a walk met a Tor- toise. After a few words the Tor-toise chal-lenged the Hare toa Race. The Hare agreed, and the Race was ar-ranged. The Hare went off like a Rock-et, while the Tor- toise crawled under a Fence. As the Hare was near-ing the End of the Race he saw the same Tor-toise, or one much like him, about to pass the Goal, where-up-on the Hare re-doub-led his ef-forts, and just man- aged to get in first by a Hare’s-breadth. “Great Scott!” cried the Tor-toise, “ this was-n’t down on the Mé-nue. I was to beat ac-cord-ing to what old Ae-sop has tor-toise.” “Oh! Pshaw!” an-swered the Hare, “an-y-body that will make a Pun on a Race will not make a-pun the Race. Simple Stakes are too much for you, you 'd better try a Pool.” “Guess I Shell,” re-plied the Tor-toise, as he dropped off into the near-est one, while the Hare tri-umph-ant-ly de- part-ed with the Lu-cre. Mo-ral — Mon-ey makes the Hare go. A SUCCESSFUL WRITER. US; Wasn't Adonis one of Shakespeare’s characters, Jack ? JACK: Yes, I believe he was. Gus: I went to see Adonzs the other night. That Shake- speare was a great writer, Jack. Ticket Agent: YoU DON'T EXPECT THOSE TWO BOYS TO GO ON ONE TICKET. She: OF couRSE I Do. It’s A TWIN, comicbooks.com