Life, 1887-05-12 · page 11 of 16
Life — May 12, 1887 — page 11: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Explanation for Modern Readers This *Life* magazine page (267) contains two satirical pieces: **"Cholly in Paris"** (top cartoon): A sketch showing a social scene where someone named Cholly is asked by a Countess if he's been in England. The caption indicates this is satirizing wealthy American socialites abroad—likely mocking their pretensions and superficial European tourism. **"A Fair Evolutionist"** (poem): Mocks an educated woman obsessed with Darwin's evolution theory, specifically ridiculing her claim that humans evolved from sponges. This satirizes late-19th-century intellectual women who embraced Darwinism—portraying their learning as pretentious rather than genuine. **"The Belated Cat"** (short story): A dark comedy fable about a railroad clerk with rigid determination who throws dynamite at a yowling cat, destroying his entire neighborhood. It's absurdist satire mocking the American cult of willpower and ambition—suggesting such blind determination leads to destruction, not success.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
La Comtesse: Vous avez fré EN ENGLETERRE? Cholly : Ovt, A FAIR EVOLUTIONIST. HE'S quite well-versed, I understand, In philosophic learning ; Her heart's consumed—so I've been told, With psycho-psychic yearning. In Kant and Locke she daily finds Enjoyment, calm, pacific, And on the Evolution scheme, Her views are quite specific , For in the seas Darwinian She takes her deepest plunges, And apropos of “men” avers That we're evolved from sponges ! Frederick Evans, Jr. THE BELATED CAT. A FABLE OF THE FUTURE, NCE upon atime there was a Young Man who possessed an Iron Will and was determined to succeed in what- ever he undertook. He was only a poor Railroad Clerk, but | he had so favorably impressed his employers that he was allowed the princely salary of ten dollars a week, on which LonDRE he was able to afford the magnificence of a whole hall-room | to himself in a boarding-house. Returning home weary one night he was intensely annoyed | by the yowling of the House-Cat, which had been carelessly | locked out. Sleep was impossible. Approaching the window cautiously the young man raised | it, and hurled an old boot at the cat; but that creature only responded by a fiendish how! of derision. She knew not the danger of provoking a man with an iron | will and a purpose in life. In an instant a can of dynamite circled through the air, and when the momentary earthquake subsided, the entire neigh- borhood consisted of a hole in the ground. A careful search: in several townships fail to reveal any remains of the young man, so we presume he is at last sound asleep. MoRAL: With proper determination and tenacity, almost anything reasonable can be achieved. O, John Henry, this disease of jumping from the Brook- lyn Bridge is not a species of lunacy, it is a well- | developed form of Dropsy. comicbooks.com