Life, 1887-02-03 · page 12 of 18
Life — February 3, 1887 — page 12: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Life Magazine Satire Page Analysis This page contains several brief satirical jokes typical of 19th-century American humor: **"Stolen Sweets"** mocks a man carrying a stolen umbrella—he won't open it because someone in a crowd might recognize it and demand it back. The joke relies on the absurdity of possessing stolen property openly. **"A Millionaire Tucre"** (a forced rhyme poem) satirizes a young woman who claims she'll marry for love, yet when a wealthy suitor appears, she abandons her principles. The satire targets mercenary attitudes among the marriage-minded. **"Only One Fault"** presents a simple ironic joke: a cook's single flaw is that she cannot cook—undercutting the premise entirely. **"Looking Ahead"** shows a tramp refusing offered bread, arguing he needs to save it for tomorrow's begging. The satire critiques either the tramp's poor planning or society's failure to address poverty adequately. The page also includes period-appropriate commentary on fashion, insurance fraud, and other contemporary social observations delivered through brief comic dialogues.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
I MR. MONEYBAGS HAS BURIED HIS THIRD WIFE. A WOMAN MARRYING THE OLD MONSTER? WELL, HE ¢s UGLY, BUT THEN HE DOES GIVE SUCH MAGNIFI- CENT FUNERALS! (CAN YOU FANCY A TEST CASE. (@pae : Phat the divil be yez doing under the horse’s | feet, enny way ? MULLIGAN : Drive on, yer fool; 1 want to find out if me loife is insured in a reliable company. PROBLEM SOLVED. OARDING-HOUSE KEEPER: You old fraud! how | do you walk around if you are blind? BEGGAR: I be’ant blind in me legs, mum? HILE celebrating the anniversary of Benjamin Frank- lin’s birthday the other evening, one of the speakers | remarked that “ the works of Charles Dickens can be bought | for twenty cents a pound, which is cheaper than beefsteak.” This is quite true, yet there are times in the lives of all of us when a pound of beefsteak, compared with the. whole catalogue of Dickens's literary labors, is as a mountain to a mole-hill. STOLEN SWEETS. Bre : Why don’t you spread your umbrella? COLES: Well, to tell you the truth, I’m afraid some one in the crowd will recognize it. Brown: Then why do you carry it? Cotes: Afraid some one will call for it while I’m out. A MILLIONAIRE TUCRE. AID a maid, ‘I will marry for lucre,” And her scandalized ma almost shucre ; But when the chance came, And she told the good dame, I notice she did not rebucre. OCTORS say the corset must go. wrong, the corset has come to stay. But they are ONLY ONE FAULT. ILLETTS says that he has a cook, a good crea- ture, who has but one fault. She can’t cook. A BLACKGUARD—A negro on picket duty. LOOKING AHEAD. ¢«¢ PLEASE, ma'am, will you give me something to eat? I haven't had a morsel to-day,” said a tramp at a farm-house. “Why, man, what do you mean?” said the lady, “you've got a large loaf of bread under your arm. Why don’t you eat that ?” “Tf I did that, what would I do to-morrow?” said the tramp. WE SUGGEST THAT A MACHINE OF THE ABOVE PATTERN BE PLACED ON EVERY STREET COKNER FOR THE BENEFIT OF POLICE OFFICERS FROM WHOM A PRISONER IS TRYING TO ESCAPE, THE MACHINE IS CAPABLE OF 3,000 SHOTS A MINUTE, THUS MULTIPLY- ING INDEFINITELY THE ‘‘ EFFICIENCY” OF AN EXCITED OFFICER. comicbooks.com