Life, 1887-09-15 · page 12 of 16
Life — September 15, 1887 — page 12: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# "Our Noble Visitor" Cartoon Explained This five-panel comic satirizes a wealthy English aristocrat (the Duke of Marlborough, identified in the accompanying text) returning to America after fifteen years. The progression shows him arriving with increasingly burdensome luggage, culminating in him collapsing under its weight—a visual metaphor for the baggage of his notorious reputation. The accompanying article sarcastically welcomes him while making clear he's disreputable ("ought to be in states-prison"). The joke is that despite his unsavory character, he'll enjoy Newport's elegant facilities, particularly noting its "almost unequaled facilities for divorce"—a pointed jab at both the aristocrat's moral failings and wealthy Americans' marital instability. The other short pieces mock various contemporary targets: churches needing better transportation to attract young men, and a newspaper reader wanting war articles removed from his Century magazine.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
I guess not! Ride to the station | Phew !! OUR NOBLE VISITOR. IS GRACE OF MARLBOROUGH is among us once more, after an absence of fifteen years. Candor com- pels us to state that His Grace is not a very nice man. We suppose he ought to be in states-prison, or some other safe and disagreeable locality, on general grounds as a mischief maker. He has gone to Newport. We are sure he will admire the place —its situation, its natural and acquired beauties, and its almost unequaled facilities for divorce. RELIGIOUS contemporary asks, * How shall we get young men to church?” Well, if the horse-cars are not running, we think a pony phaeton, or a dog-cart with two horses driven tandem, could do it. oe HAT is that?" said a teacher to an infant: pupil pointing to a period. “ That's the top of an #," said the child. Ha! Had no idea it was so far. ; AN EXPERT. RS. C.: Doctor, you were at the last illness of my eldest boy? Doctor: Yes. Mrs. You also tended professionally my first husband, who died? Doctor: Yes. Mrs. C.: Well, my second husband is sick, and.1 would like you to see him through, too. HE DIDN'T GET IT. RAVELER (0 Paper-Boy): Here, gimme a Century, PAPER-Boy : Cut or uncut ? TRAVELER: Do they come both ways? Boy: Yep. TRAVELER: Then gimme one with the war articles cut out. UNCH is to be printed on foolscap hereafter, for reasons that at once suggest themselves. comicbooks.com