Life, 1887-03-17 · page 11 of 16
Life — March 17, 1887 — page 11: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Life Magazine Satire Page Analysis This page contains three separate satirical pieces mocking American society circa the 1890s: **Top section** ("His Mistake"): A cartoon about wealthy yachtsmen like Bullwinkle and Jenks, satirizing the obsessive newspaper coverage of their leisure activities—boats passing stations, being repainted, docked. The satire criticizes both the frivolous wealthy (who use yachts as floating bars) and sensationalist press that treats trivial yacht movements as major news. **"At the Metropolitan"**: Mocks upper-class parents' indifference to culture. Children attending Wagner's *Tristan and Isolde*—high art—instead listen, playing bean-bag games in theater boxes. The humor lies in the children's boredom and parents' obliviousness to this disrespect. **"A Satisfactory Interview"**: Political satire on journalism and government evasion. A Washington editor instructs his reporter to write a full column based on Dan Lamont's non-answer about the President's second term. It mocks how newspapers fabricate substance from official non-statements—creating "news" from nothing.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
a that Mr. Jenks’s cutter the Bloodonthemoon, is to have a few pounds of ballast taken out of her, to make room, presumably, for an extra supply of champagne. And then we shall read of nothing else but that this and that boat is overhauling and forever and eternally going onto marine railways and into dry docks to get their blessed barnacle-laden bottoms scraped and painted, and the process will be carefully described in every single instance, and an “extra” published in order to let the anxious public know when a boat has successfully come off the railway, prepara- tory to going on again at once, in order to have her bottom cleaned and painted. And then the Hera/d's columns will be given over to announcing that Mr. Bullwinkle’s steam yacht Grow/er passed the Whitestone station cruising eastward; then, dated half an hour later, a despatch will be printed to the effect that the FE 153 | Growler passed the Whitestone station cruising westward, homeward bound. Great Jove! Just suppose for a moment that Mr. Bullwinkle had gone out for an hour's sail and the entire civilized world had failed to be informed of the fact! It would have been the end of things. Heavens and earth! however did our ancestors manage to get along without a daily press ? Why do they have such things as yachts? Must private | bar-rooms always be afloat, and is there no quiet and secluded spot on dry land where one can retire and get satis- factorily tight? It begins to look as though there was no such place, andso we non-yachting people will have to cultivate patience and live on the hope that there will be no yachting in the next world, although hope, like red herring, is a pretty poor article of food for a steady diet. Roland King. HIS MISTAKE, dunt; WHY HAVE YOU BROKEN OFF YOUR ENGAGEMENT ? Niece: BECAUSE HE GOT IT INTO HIS HEAD THAT I INTENDED TO MARRY HIM. AT THE METROPOLITAN. During the last act of “Tristan and Isolde.” AMMA (fo friend of the family who has just dropped in for a call): What are the girls doing in the back of the box, Mr. Smithson? . SMITHSON: Oh! they're throwing bean-bags now, with Jones and Tompkins. But they’ve had a capital game of Puss-in-the-Corner. Mamma: Poor children! They must have something to while away the time. A SATISFACTORY INTERVIEW. ASHINGTON EDITOR (¢o reporter): Did you see Dan Lamont? REPORTER: Yes, sir. Epitor: And what did he say about the President's going in for a second term? REPORTER: He said that he didn’t know anything about what the President intended to do. EDITOR (rubbing his hands): Good! Make about a column of it. comicbooks.com