Life, 1887-02-10 · page 12 of 16
Life — February 10, 1887 — page 12: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Life Magazine Page Analysis This page contains several short satirical pieces typical of Life magazine's humor: **"His Irreverent Reverence"** mocks a hypocritical Irish priest who pays peasants to blaspheme while he prays—satire on religious hypocrisy. **"He Hadn't Heard of It"** jokes about theater authorship disputes, likely referencing contemporary debates over Shakespeare attribution (the "Bacon wrote Shakespeare" controversy was active in this era). **"Loose in an Art Gallery"** satirizes newly wealthy social climbers (a "parvenue" is a nouveau riche woman) who lack cultural education, humorously assuming the Renaissance master Raphael was female. **The scraps section** includes political commentary on Franco-German tensions, mockery of Tennyson's poetry, and absurdist humor about toboggans and a frozen dog. The page's central cartoon shows a cold bedroom with a frozen dog, illustrating the visual joke that cold can literally freeze a dog's bark into visible form—period absurdist humor.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Diese whe Jough and And fay there is no hell, The of, ining breath wil Rnd you tine dwell { mul pronounce J Z dus if my Soul ee fen" b. hell Sanctuary fought mec fo, Rillows& (village Collection) Tine :China { HE: Should fudden —_. feine Dy, Breath Thy righttous Law Opprovcs, twel Bul O, their End! Their diedful End! Slippry Rocks | fc thaw fend, HIS IRREVERENT REVERENCE. DOUBLE-FACED priest of Kildare, Used to pay a rude peasant to swear, Who would paint the air blue, For an hour or two, While his reverence wrestled in prayer. HE HADN’T HEARD OF IT. HE (emerging from the theatre): How absurd it is for anyone to say that Bacon wrote “The Taming of the Shrew.” : Why, of course it is. I didn’t know that Daly’s authorship had been questioned. VERY poet sometimes has to sacrifice his cents to the exigencies of meter ;—when he pays his gas bill, for instance. LOOSE IN AN ART GALLERY. RS. PARVENUE (ndicating a painting of the Madonna): Whose picture is that, sir? DEALER: Raphael's, Madam. MRS. PARVENUE (surprised): Are you sure? I | have always supposed that Raphael was a man. T is reported that the Charleston Earthquake Fund has been used to pay for ground rent. SCRAPS. THE FRANCO-GERMAN VIEW, HERE isa place that Ingersoll Is certain don’t exist, And if it don’t we're certain that It never will be missed. But if it does, why what of it? It can’t our comfort spoil. We Teutons and we Frenchmen quite Enjoy a festive broil. | N his recently erected wing to “Locksley Hall,” Tennyson exhorts : “ Hope the best, but hold the Present, fatal daughter of the past.”” This seems rather unnecessary. If the fatal daugh- ter of the past is like the fatal daughters of other people, she may be counted upon to hang on to all the pres- ents she can lay her hands on. NLY one thing is needed to make the toboggan | an enormous success, and that is, a patent | arrangement that will cause it to gravitate up hill. YOUNG SIMMER IMAGINES HIS ROOM TO HAVE BEEN RATHER COLD DURING THE NIGHT, THE ARTICLE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE? PICTURE Is SIMMER’S FAVORITE SKYE TERRIER WITH EVERY HAIR CONGEALED, AND THE INTELLIGENT READER WILL PERCEIVE THE ARTIST HAS DEMON- | STRATED THAT EVEN A DOG’S BARK CAN TAKE FORM AND FREEZE. comicbooks.com