Life, 1887-06-30 · page 18 of 21
Life — June 30, 1887 — page 18: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is primarily an **advertising page** from Life magazine, not a political cartoon. The dominant image is a **Pears' Soap advertisement** featuring a caricatured child—labeled "You Dirty Boy!"—washing at a basin. The figure appears to use racist imagery common to Victorian-era advertising. The ad's humor relies on the child's exaggerated dirtiness and the product's promise of cleanliness. The caption "A 'balm for the Skin'" and claims of economy ("wears to thinness of a wafer") pitch the soap's practical benefits. Surrounding this are traditional advertisements for pianos, champagne, music boxes, mineral water, and Tarrant's Seltzer—typical Life magazine fare of the period. The page reflects late 19th-century consumer culture and advertising aesthetics rather than political satire. Modern readers would find the caricature style and stereotyping jarring and offensive.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
DECKER BROTHERS’ MATCHLESS PIANOS 33 Union Square, N. Y. DELBECK-+- EXTRA DRY and Procurable Everywhere. We offer the DELBECK CHAMPAGNES with a full conviction that there are no better wines imported. WE EXCEPT NONE. E. LAMONTAGNE & SONS, 53, 55 and 57 Beaver Street. | ~ Paillard’s Music BOXES ARE THE BEST. They play selections from¢?all the Standard and Light Operas and the most Popular Music of the Day. Send stamp for Descriptive Price List to M. J. PAILLARD & (0., (Factory av STE, CROIX, SWITZERLAD A WE Yim MARECHALE-BRUT NARECHAL Roosevert gy Howts..0 - 55457 BEAVER st N.Y. ou Dirt ! A ‘balm for the Skin.” The most economical; it wears to thinness of a wafer. The best for the Complexion. A UNIQUE VOLUME. “THE JOURNALIST” SOUVENIR. Neautifully printed, handsomely illustrated, wide margins, parchment cover. “EDITION DE Small quarto. Two hundred and pages, Poems and Sketches, by the best writers on the American press, Free to Subscribers. To Non-Subscribers, Fifty Cents. “THE JOURNALIST,” ALLAN FORMAN, Eprror, 1 117 Nassau St.,.N. ¥.! Pleasant to Taste, Prompt in Action, Always Reliable. It soon brings into healthy play The Torpid Liver day by day, And Regulates the System through, From crown of head to sole of shoe. {t cures the Piles, it opens pores, Lost appetite it soon restores, Wise families throughout the land Keep TARRANT'S SELTZER near at hand, comicbooks.com