Life, 1887-09-01 · page 16 of 16
Life — September 1, 1887 — page 16: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page is primarily **advertising**, not political satire. The dominant image is a Pears' Soap advertisement featuring a cherubic figure washing a dirty boy, with the caption "You Dirty Boy!" **The Advertisement's Message:** The ad uses sentimental Victorian imagery—a well-dressed child attending to an unkempt street child—to market soap as a moral and practical solution. The tagline promises Pears' Soap is "the best for the Complexion" and "most economical." **Social Context:** This reflects 1887 attitudes about cleanliness as both hygiene and moral virtue. The imagery subtly promotes class distinctions while offering an aspirational message: proper soap could "civilize" even dirty street children. The ad doesn't mock the dirty boy but rather positions soap-use as a path to respectability. The surrounding page contains typical period advertisements for champagne, spring water, beauty treatments, and other products—standard commercial content for *Life* magazine.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
(Serr. 1, 1887, NDERWO SPRING WH PUREST NATURAL WATER Healthful, Cooling and Refreshing. Preventive of Bright's Disease. For Sale by all Druggists and Groce:s. SEND FOR CIRCULARS. THE UNDERWOOD co. GENERAL OFFICE, 18 VESEY StT., NEW YORK. DELBECK+ EXTRA DRY and Procurahle Everywhere. soou haan orqmanands We offer the DELBECK CHAMPAGNES with a full conviction that there are no better wines imported. WE EXCEPT NONE. E. LAMONTAGNE & Sons, 53, 55 nnd 57 Beaver street. | f se You Dirty Boy! The best for the Complexion. A ‘balm for the Skin# The most economical; it wears to thinness of a wafer. -|Cavanagh, Sandford & Co.., "Common Sense Binder FoR Binpino hee Se -LIFE- , Merchant Tailors . Cheap, Strong and Durable, vin RUT Will hold 2 numbers, Mailed to any part por. d els Roel of the United States for $x. and Im, ters, tar ; warkcuaue 1 Address office of + LIFE . 28 W. aq St... N,V Sriakie Blac! Fendt Sotucte Hiky | Mpposite Fifth Ave. Hotel, NEW YORK ‘permanently removed. F Wate ‘or reduced, Complex. ys tified. ‘The Form developed 16 West 23d Street, Lsah | RooseveLt » Howtas « ey 55437 BEAVER St MAKERS OF THE © & § SHIRT PAJAMAS AND Unparwnas, | comicbooks.com