Life, 1887-09-01 · page 12 of 16
Life — September 1, 1887 — page 12: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# "A Reminiscence of the Dog-Days" This page features a four-panel cartoon showing a child repeatedly visiting a neighbor's doghouse, apparently trying to play with or retrieve a dog. The humor appears to be a simple domestic scene—the child's persistence and the dog's reluctance or the neighbor's reactions provide the comedic arc, though specific details are difficult to discern in the image quality. The surrounding text consists of literary gossip (Eugene Field's criticism collection, Rider Haggard's rumored bibliography), wordplay puns, and brief satirical economic commentary. A larger cartoon depicts a job-seeker being turned away, with dialogue suggesting employment scarcity. The "Finance" section mocks financial speculation around gold coins and Wall Street failures with light humor. The overall tone is typical of *Life* magazine's genteel satire aimed at educated readers—mixing literary references, clever wordplay, and social observation rather than sharp political commentary.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
> LYFE - A REMINISCENCE OF THE DOG-DAYS. LITERARY NOTES. Te astonishingly’ erudite literary criticisms of Hon. Eugene Field, of the Chicago Tribune, have been brought out in paper covers by Ticknor & Co., of Boston. We commend the volume, which bears the title “ Culture’s Garden,” to those of our readers who are interested in the Chicago literary movement. and who wish to have opened up for them an altogether novel not to say astounding view of literature. HE rumor that Mr. Ryder Haggard—as we believe he is now called—is preparing a bibli- ography, entitled ‘“ Books that have Helped Me,” lacks confirma- tion. CORRESPONDENT quot- ing Tom Moore's well-known lines, “ My only books Were woman's looks And folly’s all they've taught me,” wishes to know if such volumes could be called Edstion de Looks. We think this query demon- strates the truth of the last line of the quotation. * . . A NEW periodical for the The- osophists is to be started. It will come under the head of Nirv-ana, “ARE YOU A MECHANIC?” THE SUPPLY GREATER THAN THE DEMAND. “PLease, I WUD LIKE T’ GIT A Jo O° WORK, SIR.” * Naw, stk; I'M A MecTavish FROM Cark Breeton.” SS: SSS WSSEES KN AX EN FINANCE. OCIAL SCIENCE is discussing, “ Are Gold Coins Money?” It doesn’t seem to make much difference whether they are or not. We have yet to see the man who wouldn't chase a gold coin down to—well, to Wall Street, in the hope of getting it. ENRY JAMES always Howells when he is hurt. This is a joke that requires thought to be appreciated. HEY have been having a rain of mud in Iowa. The inhabi- tants speak of it as a reign of ferra. T is supposed that the expres- sion, “A little Gaul goes a great ways,” originated in the times of Napoleon I. [* a man has a poor head he won't pass—if he has a poor hand that is just what he will do. N the bright lexicon of Wall Street, one of the largest words is * Fail.” T is said that at a late hanging in Louisiana the Governor's special messenger arrived on the scene at the last moment bearing a reprieve, whereupon the fortunate culprit re- marked * No noose is good news.” comicbooks.com